Elijah Macias, second from right, received $88,000 in academic scholarships from the University of Texas at Austin. Pictured from left to right: His grandfather Jesse Mendoza, dad Ermin Macias, mom Andy Ramirez, sister Elise and brother Noah.
The University of Texas surprised Elijah Macias Monday.
Representatives from the Cockrell School of Engineering waited in a classroom to tell the Sunset High School senior he’d been accepted.
Not only that, but they gave him $88,000 in academic scholarships (watch video of the surprise below).
The Advocate profiled the Macias family earlier this year because their sons were among the first wave of dual-language students at Rosemont Elementary. Elijah Macias and his brother, Noah, later opted out of Booker T. Washington high school, where both were accepted after excelling at the Greiner arts academy, in favor of attending Sunset.
Their older sister, Sophia, was Sunset’s valedictorian in 2017 and currently is a physics major at UT Austin.
Their mom, Andy Ramirez, also attended Sunset, and she wasn’t impressed with the education she received in the ’90s. But Sunset is improving, she says, and there are more parents holding the school accountable.
“The school has come so far from where it was 20 years ago,” Ramirez told the Advocate in February.
