Arlington ISD students earn full ride to MIT

ARLINGTON, Texas - Two Arlington students have been awarded a full scholarship to attend MIT this fall.

Trinity Stallins and Samantha Maldonado are part of the first graduating class from the STEM Academy at Martin High School.

“I’m really glad everything I’ve done has shown and paid off for the future,” Maldonado said.

“It’s very exciting for us. This is our first graduating class with our STEM Academy. It was started four years ago. So the fact that most of our students got incredible opportunities has been wonderful. But the fact that these two girls got MIT scholarships which I don’t think we’ve ever had before, we’re just really pleased and proud of the kids in that STEM Academy,” said Marlene Roddy, the principal at Martin High School.

Stallin said she didn’t make straight A’s but she did take on a wide variety of courses from robotics to bowling. She thinks it helped prepare her for college.

MIT said it looks for a diverse skillset in students who bring a unique perspective to the program. Only about 6.7% of applicants are accepted each year.