Manhattan University announced that Nelson Paredes who will be entering his sophomore year in September at the University, has been awarded a $2000 scholarship by the National Puerto Rican Day Parade, Inc. (NPRDP). According to the NPRDP website, the parade itself is the largest demonstration of cultural pride in the U.S. Now in its 68th year, the parade honors the 3.2 million inhabitants of Puerto Rico and the 5.8 million Puerto Ricans residing in the U.S.
The program and events focus on promoting education, culture, and the arts, and is committed to advancing the pursuit of higher education by awarding scholarships to students of Puerto Rican descent.
Based on an application process that included two essay questions, an interview, and a student’s overall GPA, the selection of the recipients for this year’s scholarships was a highly selective process with over 400 applications for 100 scholarships. Paredes, whose heritage is half Puerto Rican and half Italian, is a student in Manhattan’s KAKOS School of Arts and Sciences where he is a physics major with the hopes of attending graduate school to focus on astrophysics. This summer, he will be participating in a Research Scholars Program at Manhattan focusing on the impact of density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy on properties of neutron stars.
Paredes stated that being Puerto Rican allowed him to understand how various cultures share similarities, to delve more deeply in the Latine and Hispanic culture, and to connect with others in the Puerto Rican community. This is the second scholarship that Paredes received from NPRDP, having received his first scholarship upon his high school graduation from Repertory Company High School for Theatre Arts in the Times Square area of New York City. In addition to his current studies at Manhattan University, Paredes volunteers as a lector at his church and participates in various community service organizations.
According to Julie Anna Alvarez Rivera, the Director of the Center for Career Development at Manhattan University, “Nelson embodies the combination of attributes that makes him an ideal recipient of the NPRDP scholarship: he his highly intelligent, focused on learning, a young man who gives back to his community, and a source of pride for those of Puerto Rican heritage.”
