Royal senior excited, nervous about future

ROYAL CITY - Laura Bautista-Rodriguez knows what she wants to accomplish in life, but she's wondering how she'll get there.

It all depends on scholarships. She's still in the running for three, but one, the Nordstrom, has escaped her.

"I guess I wasn't good enough for them," she said.

Say what?

Bautista-Rodriguez has a 3.96 grade point average and is ranked No. 2 in her class. She will graduate this spring with an AA in arts and science from the Big Bend Community College Running Start Program as well as her diploma.

Bautista-Rodriguez's GPA has been built on an academic regimen that would be tougher than two years of high school. All of her classes for two years - a 15-credit load per quarter - have been college courses.

"She is a great student," said Royal High counselor Marge Edwards.

Of 600 applicants, Nordstrom interviewed 14. Bautista-Rodriguez was one of the 14, but only seven winners were chosen.

"Ever since that, it's been, 'I don't think I'll get excited,'" she said.

Bautista-Rodriguez remains in the running for three scholarships - Gates Millenium, KFC and Dell. She has made it to the second phase of the Gates competition, she's a semi-finalist in the Dell and a finalist in the KFC.

"This is great news, and we hope she gets an award," Edwards said.

The scholarship Bautista-Rodriguez most covets is the Gates. It's a full-ride deal and would allow her to make the choice she prefers.

Bautista-Rodriguez hopes to become a medical doctor. She has been accepted at the University of Washington and Seattle Pacific University. Both, she believes, have crack pre-med programs.

But Bautista-Rodriguez likes SPU. It is a private Christian school, and she's a devout Catholic. In addition, she said, 99 percent of SPU pre-med graduates are accepted to med school.

Bautista-Rodriguez will be first in her family to graduate from high school. She will be first to attend college. Now she wants to become first with a medical career.

"I feel I have the skills and ambition to follow through with college," she said. "I'd like to use those skills to help people. I can't think of a better way than being a family doctor."