Program helps Quitman senior match up with top tier college

Posted 1/20/22

Quitman High School senior Christian Adamson has been on the ride of a lifetime the past few months. His journey started last summer when he began looking into colleges. Adamson has big dreams and wanted to make sure he found the right school.

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Program helps Quitman senior match up with top tier college

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Quitman High School senior Christian Adamson has been on the ride of a lifetime the past few months. His journey started last summer when he began looking into colleges. Adamson has big dreams and wanted to make sure he found the right school.

He had been contacted by a group called “QuestBridge” the previous year about possibly qualifying for their “College Prep Scholars” program which provides opportunities for students to visit potential colleges. Adamson turned down that opportunity but still kept up with the the emails they sent.

One day, an email about a program called the “National College Match” caught his eye – and his journey began. 

QuestBridge’s “National College Match” program allows talented low-income students the opportunity to attend elite colleges. QuestBridge partners with 45 colleges to provide full, four-year scholarships. Students are allowed to apply for free and are considered for early admission. Last year, QuestBridge matched 1,400 finalists. This year they admitted close to 1,700.

The “Match” scholarship is considered a “full ride,” covering tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies and travel expenses. Adamson decided to give it a shot and applied to the program in July. He had to provide two teacher recommendations, along with a school counselor’s report. Adamson also had to submit two essays and fill out a short answer questionnaire. 

Once a student becomes a finalist, QuestBridge has the finalist rank his/her preferred colleges among QuestBridge’s college partners. Adamson was accepted as a finalist and originally ranked Rice as his top pick, with Vanderbilt second. The partner colleges do not know how each finalist has ranked them. The colleges access the students’ submitted files and choose who they think will be a good match for their school. Once a college chooses a student, other partner colleges are not allowed to make an offer. 

On Dec. 1, Adamson received a notice via email that a partner college had been matched to him. He accessed their system online and found out that Vanderbilt University matched with him. He received his official acceptance letter from Vanderbilt two weeks later.

Adamson was so excited when he learned of his match to Vanderbilt. Adamson said he “ran all over school telling all the teachers he got matched.” One teacher even gifted him a Vanderbilt t-shirt to celebrate. Adamson said he’s had “non-stop support” through the process from his family, teachers and fellow students. 

Adamson has yet to set foot on Vanderbilt’s campus, but he plans to change that over Spring Break in March. He also plans to visit again over the summer before attending freshman orientation and moving onto campus in August. Adamson is extremely excited for this opportunity. It’s the next step on his journey to his career in agricultural sustainability. 

Adamson stated that he would like to study agriculture and sociology while attending Vanderbilt. His long range goals are “to conduct research on the way people interact with the environment and how it affects the sustainability of our diets and the way we live. The foundation of my beginning research will be based on the premise that we can grow more people and more livestock, but not more land.”

Over the course of his college career, Adamson hopes to study abroad in Costa Rica, focusing on sustainable agriculture and the correlation between agriculture and the diets of the people there. He also plans to attend graduate school to further his research after obtaining his bachelor’s degree. 

From an early age, Adamson has been interested in life science and what goes on around him. He stated that he’s gone through many phases of not knowing what he wanted to do with his life, but felt himself being drawn to any news reports he saw that pertained to the degradation of the environment.

He wasn’t sure how to translate that interest into a career, though. Not until Corey Hammond introduced Adamson to agricultural science through his FFA classes. Hammond encouraged Adamson to get involved – not only in the science itself but also in areas of leadership and public speaking. 

Adamson has enjoyed winning several awards at FFA competitions and has earned several achievements. He is the vice president for FFA. Along with his leadership role in FFA, Adamson serves as vice president for the National Honor Society and as the Student Council’s parliamentarian, Spanish Club president and class secretary. He also competes in UIL events in literary criticism, spelling and vocabulary, social studies, copy editing, headline writing and science.

Adamson was named to the National Society of High School Scholars and also nominated for the Society for Collegiate Leadership and Achievement. Adamson also performs a variety of community service in his spare time.