Armando Ocampo, 12, was one out of 42 outstanding Colorado seniors to be awarded the Boettcher Scholarship. Over 1,500 students apply for the scholarship and out of those students 100 are chosen to be interviewed. Finally, those 100 students are narrowed down to the 42 who are awarded the scholarship. The Boettcher Scholarship offers its finalists a full-ride scholarship to any school in Colorado.

The process of applying for the Boettcher Scholarship is a long and arduous process. The first part of the application is the essays. Armando had to write 20-word descriptions describing all of the activities he participates in. He also had to write four different essays talking about school, extracurriculars, and volunteering, three of which were 200 words and the last one which was 500 words. Armando said, “I had friends checking my essays that I sent probably, back and forth–at least six or seven times–every essay that I was doing, to everybody that I could get to possibly read it and fix them for me–try to get feedback.”

After the essay submissions and before they narrow it down to the students the Boettcher Foundation wants to interview, they narrow it down to 300 who must submit three letters of recommendation. One from a teacher, one from a counsellor or administrator, and the last from an leader of an outside-of-school activity such as community service. Armando said, “That was almost the hardest part because there was nothing that I could do really about that, and trust me, I tried to do as much as I could for all of it.” At this point the pressure shifted from Armando to the people he had asked to write the recommendations for him.

From this point, the people from Boettcher narrow it down to the 100 students who they wanted to come in and interview. The interview is the last step in the application process before they select the finalists. “The interview was fifteen minutes which is barely enough to get to know anybody, so you have to make sure that what you’re talking about is talked about well,” said Armando. Armando spent mock interview after mock interview preparing for this. He met with his family, friends, neighbors, and even people he didn’t know to practice interviewing and get a feel for what he needed to say. Prior to the interview process, Armando also had opportunities to meet with other Boettcher scholars and ask them questions about their experience in the application and interview process. “Really, I owe all of this to the people that helped me interview… I could have never done any of it without them because they gave me such good feedback, and I’m so lucky to have such a community like this that is so willing to help me,” Armando said.

Though fifteen minutes really isn’t enough time to get to know someone, Armando’s character stands out to anyone. Along with being on the varsity soccer team at Broomfield, Armando is also in student council, co-president of National Honors Society, and leader of the Latino Club. Outside of school he undertakes just as much. Armando mentors students from Birch Elementary who either just moved from Mexico or don’t know how to speak a lot of English. He also volunteers many hours a week at the hospital, changing beds and preparing rooms to be used by patients. And in the spare time he has, if any, Armando secretly loves playing the piano.

Despite being one of the best leaders and role models in the Broomfield community, Armando remained humble throughout the entire application process. He said, “When I started out I thought, ‘there is no way I’m gonna get this. There’s so many people who apply to it.’ You come up to it and it looks like this giant thing that’s super far away and you’re like, why me?… Up until the second that I got the letter I didn’t really ever think it was gonna be me.”  However, with hours and hours of choosing the right words to fit into 20-word descriptions, writing essays, editing essays, mock interviewing, plus the countless hours he has put into his studies and volunteering, Armando achieved something only 42 of the most driven student leaders in Colorado achieve. He said, “Getting the Boettcher Scholarship is exciting for so much more than the actual scholarship just because it’s such a good community of people who are here in Colorado to help businesses and people grow and succeed, and those connections and the people I am going to be involved with are what I’m really excited about.”

The next steps for Armando will be at Colorado School of Mines where he wants to study either software or electrical engineering and eventually work with robots and technology. “I want to find a way to change the world through that aspect as it’s becoming a bigger part of society,” Armando said. With all of these new opportunities and accomplishments, we are excited to see what amazing things will be in store for Armando in the future.