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"The JROTC program has been amazing. I'm grateful for all the opportunities. I've written in my essays for college that I've done things in that program that I never in a million years thought I would do. It taught me to be open-minded."
Maria is planning to go to Rhode Island College in the fall to study nursing. She said she was deciding between Rhode Island College for nursing and the University of Rhode Island for mechanical engineering. Maria said it was a tough decision to make, since she was interested in both the engineering and nursing fields, but decided from a financial standpoint that Rhode Island College was the best fit for her. She also considered Norwich University in Connecticut, but figured she would probably have to go in as a cadet, since it's a school that has a focus on the military. She is part of the JROTC program at Hope, so she was trying to decide if the military was something she wanted to continue during her college years, but decided to revisit joining the military down the road. Mara said she chose to attend Hope for high school because it was the closest school to her house, and that was important to her. She moved here from New York during her freshman year of high school, and finished out the year remotely through her high school in New York since it was during COVID, and started at Hope her sophomore year. Maria says that Hope has a big Hispanic community, and she's Hispanic, having been born in Venezuela, so she said it was easy to acclimate herself when she started school at Hope. Something she would pass along to incoming Hope High School freshmen is to be open-minded and try new things. During her time at Hope High School, Maria participated in JROTC, softball, volleyball, culinary, and she did a little boxing. She said she loved participating in culinary work, especially making pastries.
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"Don't be afraid to put yourself out there. It doesn't matter if you get negative feedback or positive feedback, at least you tried."
Arlanis will be attending Bryant University in the fall and is going to study international business. She said her dad is the one that got her really interested in business because he's a landlord, and she started doing more research on business, and decided it was something she wanted to pursue. Arlanis got into several local colleges, but she knew that Bryant was a big university for business, so she decided that it was the best fit for her. She was originally attending Mount Pleasant for high school, but after attending an open house with her younger brother who was going to Hope, she decided to transfer there because she liked the environment a lot better when she was walking around and looking at the school, and also because it would be easier for both her and her younger brother to be dropped off at the same school. One thing she would pass along to incoming freshmen is to be as social as you can, because that's how you make connections. During her time at Hope, Arlanis was the captain of the girls' tennis team, a member of the prom committee, and was also a part of student government.