Teen gets full ride to Vassar

SANDPOINT — Sandpoint High School senior Gabriel Burns was not only accepted to one of the leading liberal arts colleges in the nation, she was offered a full ride to attend Vassar College.

And, in addition to heading off to a top tier college, after skipping eighth grade, she is only 16 years old as she finishes up her senior year at SHS.

"I think my grades and academics, paired with all the things I've been involved with, are how I got into Vassar," Burns said.

SHS counselor Jeralyn Mire said Burns did "all the right things" to get into the college of her dreams.

"She did everything she could to put herself in a position of really having the opportunities to apply to a top-tier, highly-selective school," Mire said.

Vassar has a 25-percent acceptance rate and the annual tuition cost is $52,320. Over four years of tuition, room and board, the grant will cover a total of more than $200,000 of Burns' education.

So how does one get a full ride to a college like Vassar? Getting good grades — straight As in particular — doing well on tests, taking advanced placement and honors classes, and being involved in, well, everything. Burns is the president of the SHS human rights club and the Interact club, and is involved in several other clubs, including French club, math club and the National Honor Society. She does a lot of leadership activities with the Sandpoint Quakers as well.

"I really like being involved in everything," she said. "... In high school you can get a lot of experiences and leadership without it being so much pressure or really competitive, so I think everyone should get involved, even if they don't plan to go to a school like Vassar."

In addition to all the other work she put in, Burns said she also wrote three essays and went through an extensive financial aid process. The FAFSA was painless, she said, but the College Scholarship Service's financial aid profile work was a grueling process. Mire said the purpose of the CSS profile is to "even the playing field" at highly selective schools like Vassar. Burns said it is comprehensive because when giving a student that much money, they want to know exactly what the applicant's finances are and where the money is going.

Burns said she knew since she was a sophomore that she wanted to go to Vassar. Last summer, after saving money from working at Play to Learn Daycare, she traveled across the country to visit Vassar, Brown University and Barnard College. She previously visited some other colleges as well, but of all the colleges she went to, Vassar was her favorite, so she applied early decision and was accepted.

Burns plans to major in political science and, with her degree, plans to work in legislative advocacy and public policy. She said she has been interested in politics for several years, but as with the top choice of Vassar, she decided her major when she was a sophomore. 

With her interest in politics and her drive to find opportunities of success, Burns is heading to Washington, D.C., next week to attend Springlobby Weekend for the second year in a row, funded through a Quaker scholarship.

Mire said Burns' perseverence is her greatest strength, because Burns pushes on and finds the resources she needs to succeed.

"You often don't see students with the willingness and tenacity to keep persevering," Mire said.

Burns works at the daycare in the summer, a daycare she attended as a kid. She also worked at the Corner Book Store, tutors, recently took up cooking as a hobby, enjoys the outdoors and poetry — reading it, not writing it.

Growing up in Sandpoint, Burns attributes some of her success to SHS and the opportunity to take AP and honors classes, because when applying to a school like Vassar, she was up against those who have attended some of the best prep schools in the country and have had the best education. Burns has been taking AP classes since her sophomore year, although she is "only" taking five this semester.

"To have a high school with really good teachers and AP classes, that makes a huge difference when you are applying to selective schools," Burns said.

She said she has had some "phenomenal" teachers at SHS, and her AP literature teacher would say the same about her. Pam Webb said as an AP teacher, she gets a sense of who the talented and strong writers are. Burns entered her class with that ability, she said, and has a "quiet perseverence" in her writing. She is going to do something with this, Webb said.

"Students like Gabriel show how quiet diligence has its rewards," Webb said. I'm absolutely thrilled about her achievement; at her reaching and attaining this goal. It show how dreams can be accomplished with perseverence and hard work."

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.