Dorian Vaughn a Gates Scholar

Dorian Vaughn received 22 letters from colleges recruiting him to play football.

Princeton. Columbia. Yale. Most of the top schools were included.

But the letter Vaughn, a Rogers High School senior, covets the most isn’t the one that says he’s a great athlete, but the one identifying him as a Gates Millennium Scholar.

The prestigious scholarship, established with a $1 billion grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is awarded to only 1,000 highly motivated minority students throughout the United States and Puerto Rico each year.

It is administered through the United Negro College Fund in partnership with the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, the American Indian Graduate Scholars and The Organization of Chinese Americans, and designed to reduce financial barriers to higher education for students of color.

Not only will the scholarship pay for Vaughn’s college tuition, books and housing expenses in the first four years, but if he wants, it will pay for a graduate and doctorate degree.

“As far as I want to go,” Vaughn said. “It’s crazy. I still can’t believe it.”

Vaughn, 18, decided he will play football and study at Occidental College, a small college in Los Angeles, this fall. Occidental has about 1,800 students, and accepts only 400 new students each year. Most classes have a student to teacher ratio of 15-to-1.

“It’s more like you are a person instead of a number,” Vaughn said.

Vaughn is the Associated Student Body president and was nominated for a Chase Youth Award for his involvement in Habitat for Humanity. He has organized blood drives at Rogers and reads to children at the Northeast Community Center.

He is a mentor through the school’s Link Crew, which pairs upperclassmen with freshmen students to help them adjust to high school.

Vaughn was the team captain for both varsity football and track, and the Greater Spokane League academic team, and was an honorable mention for the all-GSL defense team for football. He also was named to the Washington State track and field team and will compete in Australia in July.

He’s a member of the National Honor Roll, DECA and was named to the list of “Who’s Who Among High School Students.”

“I rarely see my child. I have to make an appointment to see him,” his mother, Donna Vaughn, joked. Dorian Vaughn is one of four children.

“Dorian is the type of child who is a go-getter…he’s been competitive all of his life,” Donna Vaughn said.

There was never any question about Dorian going on to college, his mother said, but the dream of attending an Ivy League college might not have come true if not for the scholarship. Occidental costs $45,000 a year, of which Vaughn qualified for only $18,000 in financial aid.

He wrote nine essays to get the award.

“It’s huge,” Donna Vaughn said. “I’m still trying to grasp the magnitude of this blessing.”

Vaughn was awarded numerous other scholarships, but when he found he won the Gates funding, he asked not to be included in any others.

“I figured there was somebody who needed it more than me,” Dorian Vaughn said.

His mother was not surprised.

“He does the right thing because it feels good, not because he has to, but because he wants to,” Donna Vaughn said.