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A 17-year-old William Floyd High School senior has won a full ride to Yale University.
Nathalia Reis was selected for the full, four-year scholarship through the QuestBridge National College Match program, an initiative that connects the nation’s highest-achieving seniors to America’s top colleges and universities.
Reis, of Mastic, is one of just 1,127 students across the nation to receive this scholarship — and only 87 selected to attend Yale — out of more than 15,000 applicants, according to a school district release.
Reis has not decided on a major, but she is considering ethics, politics and economics. She will be a member of the Yale University Class of 2024.
With a course load of William Floyd High School’s most challenging Advanced Placement, honors and college-level courses, Nathalia, 17, of Mastic, has maintained her position at the top of her graduating class with an overall weighted grade point average of 103.50. She was nearly perfect on her college entrance exams, scoring a 1550 on her SAT and a 35 on her ACT.
“Nathalia is an intelligent, hardworking, mature and goal-oriented student who challenges herself on a daily basis,” said Amanda Ericksen, Reis’ guidance counselor. “She has an innate and insatiable love for learning which serves as an inspiration to others.”
Nathalia, who has attended William Floyd schools K-12 at Moriches Elementary School, William Floyd Middle School and William Floyd High School, is grateful for the vast opportunities she has had at William Floyd. “This is significant for me and my family. I’m excited for the opportunity to go to an amazing school on a full scholarship,” she said. She will be the first in her family to attend college.
While Nathalia excels academically, her interests and activities are numerous. She is a member of the National Honor Society, the Stony Brook University and Technology Entry Program, the Tri-M Music Honor Society (violin), Mock Trial, the Long Island Mentor Moot Court, and the Youth & Government program, for which she was selected by her peers from across New York State to serve as chief justice at the 2020 conference.
She is also involved in the William Floyd High School Science Research program and has won multiple awards including first place in the STEP Program Junior Division Research Competition as a freshman, in which she and another peer, Erin Tumbrello, mentored by NYS Master Teachers Victoria Hernandez and Anya Swiss, conducted research analyzing the biodiversity of biological vectors between forested and coastal environments. Nathalia was also recognized for her research with second-place honors at the New York State Science & Engineering Fair Andromeda Competition.
In her spare time, she attained the rank of Ambassador with the Girl Scouts, which speaks to her leadership abilities and love for her community.
