After years of hard work and determination, Robinson’s very own Dayana Dominguez (’24) received admission to Amherst University through the Questbridge Scholarship, a program that works to match underserved students with some of the nation’s best universities.

Matching to a University through QuestBridge is an extremely competitive process. Roughly 30% of students who apply to the scholarship foundation become finalists, and only a small fraction of those finalists are able to match – students are asked to rank universities, and vice versa; if the rankings match, then the student is accepted – with a university.

“The process is quite extensive and very rigorous,” said Marjan Deboskey, Dominguez’s Guidance Counselor. “She’s actually the first student that I have had, during my time with Hillsborough County, that has matched.”

Balancing the considerably large application along with schoolwork and extracurricular activities required something a bit more than hard work: sacrifice.

“To get to this point, I had to prioritize school above everything else, that meant sacrificing several hours of sleep and doing some mental gymnastics to push through the difficult parts,” Dominguez said. “The amount of things on my plate has been the hardest part, I have had to work a lot on my time management.”

On top of her extreme academic workload, Dominguez is president and section leader of Orchestra, finance committee head in SGA, enjoys competing in Latin competitions and has responsibilities at home.

“Outside of academics, I have always had a love for music. Orchestra has been my main focus since middle school, from concerts at school to all county and all state auditions,” Dominguez said. “I love competing at Latin regionals, states and nationals. I also have to mention the full-time job of being an older sister to a wild 4-year-old at home.”

However, this difficult journey was not one that she completed alone. With such a strong support system, Dominguez was able to push herself to such an elite level.

“Everyone who has supported me has played a huge role in getting me to this point. My teachers have answered all of my questions and prepared me for exams. My parents were always there with words of encouragement when I felt like giving up. My friends were the support and escape I needed many times,” Dominguez said. “I can’t thank everyone enough for being there for me throughout all of it.”

Her longtime friend, Allan Lewis (’24), remembers a time when Dominguez, through sheer hard work and determination, was able to persevere.

“There isn’t a specific story [of her hard work] because she works especially hard all the time, but if I had to choose it would be her junior year when she took AP Statistics,” Lewis said. “Don’t get me wrong she’s great at math but AP Statistics is weird because it’s hypothetical and she was confused. But she put serious time into studying and trying to get down the concepts. When normal people would give up, she didn’t even consider that an option and she persevered and passed the class.”

Her friends aren’t the only ones who have noticed her outstanding work ethic: teachers and advisors see her bring this mentality into her work every day.

“She’s crazy hardworking, ridiculously responsible. She’s really good at setting goals and following through. She seems to never get phased by stuff,” said Allison Howard, the Orchestra Teacher. “I know there are times when she must be completely overwhelmed, but she never shows it. She just does her job and pushes through, and that’s going to make her successful.”

For her future, Dominguez hopes to enter the medical field and become a Neurosurgeon.

“After Amherst, I’ll go to medical school and hopefully match into a great neurosurgery program afterward,” she said. “I plan to keep my work ethic to achieve this, as well as my determination.”

This story was originally published on RHS Today on January 31, 2024.