As the class of 2026 reaches closer to the end of their high school careers, most individuals are looking and preparing for their future in college. Due to high expenses as the highest reason for individuals not attending college—according to the NASFAA—college for the working class tends to be more of an amenity and almost unreachable, but not for West High School Senior Delphi Dixon. On April 20, Dixon and 749 other students found out their eligibility among the 61,000 applicants to be recipients of The Gates Scholarship, a highly competitive program founded in 2017 by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on the principles of being committed to “helping outstanding students who come from low-income backgrounds realize their maximum potential.”
With this scholarship now in Dixon’s hands, her college expenses will be entirely paid for, making her future endeavors entirely possible.
“You can’t let other people stop your own successes. You have to find your group of people and your group of friends that wants you succeed, and then once you have that, it gets so much better,” Dixon mentions, “I know that not everyone can find that, which is why I want to be a teacher, because when at first I couldn’t find those things, I always had teachers there to support me. Now it’s my turn to do that for other students.”
During her time at West, Dixon has been a part of Speech, Theatre, The Waterloo Youth City Council, The National FFA Organization, Dance Marathon, Black Student Union and the National Honor Society. Inside the classroom, Dixon has taken several advanced courses such as IB English and AP Calculus. When reflecting on her placement in advanced courses having a correlation with the Gates Scholarship, Dixon mentioned, “I kind of got into this mindset where it’s like, if I don’t load my schedule with AP’s or load my schedule with IB’s, I’m not going to get anything. So when I first applied to gates, I just did it on a limb. They were like, ‘what’s your senior schedule?’ Other applicants were like, AP everything. And I was just like, No school until 9:31 AP classes, IB English. I feel like that really set me apart, because it’s not about the title of the class or the status, it’s about what you take from that class. And obviously I showed them that I took a lot from all my different kinds of classes, and not one kind of class makes a good student.”
Dixon, when in discussion of where her passion comes from, went into detail about the miseducation of black and other minority groups in the Waterloo Community School District. According to a 2018 ProPublica report, “White students are 16.3 times as likely to be enrolled in at least one AP class as Black students.” While FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) regulations often make specific and up to date data difficult to access, this report highlights the documented disparity black individuals face in the access to honors classes. Such reports are often cited to show the historical context of educational inequity in the United States.
“A lot of kids of color have heard the statement where it’s when they do something, you have to work twice as hard to get the same effect, and so I’ve just always had that mindset, so it’s pushed me to work harder,” Dixon states, “I just hope that the school [Waterloo West] can work to find a balance. Working hard is part of academically challenging courses, but you should also be able to enjoy school and it shouldn’t just be about having to prove yourself or feeling like you don’t belong. You should be fun for you too.”
Dixon plans to attend the University of Iowa to pursue a degree in Elementary Education with a minor in Math.
“I think approaching the end of senior year and finally getting the gates scholarship, it’s taught me that your first believer and your first supporter has got to be yourself.”
