Growing up, children are told to “follow their dreams,” but few actually get the chance to do so. For one senior in particular, these goals have come to fruition; Madison Hayes plans on studying neuroscience at Columbia University.
Of 60,248 2024 applicants, only 2,327 were admitted to Columbia; only 18% of these students came from the south. Columbia recommends a 4.14 GPA to be considered, which can only be achieved through hard work in rigorous AP courses.
Hayes’ college career has been made possible through the Questbridge match scholarship; this scholarship is awarded to underprivileged, high-achieving students. Hayes received a full ride to Columbia through this program.
As of this school year, Hayes is Santa Fe’s National Honor Society (NHS) historian, Black Student Union (BSU) treasurer, a member of mixed show choir (Finale), student executive at BancFirst and a member of the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC); she has also been in FCCLA, newspaper, theater and debate in previous years.
Throughout her life, Hayes moved countless times. She attended school in Mustang, Oklahoma her freshman and sophomore years before moving to Victorville, California. During the spring of her junior year, she moved back to Oklahoma but attended Santa Fe this time.
“Last March, my junior year, was a terrible time,” Hayes said. “State testing started, and then the ACT. But, it’s made me a lot more thankful for the people I surround myself with. I feel like I’m always in a room with someone different, whether it’s California or Oklahoma— it’s a whole different playground of people and cultures. I think that’s cool. It’s made me wanna connect more with people, especially with what I wanna do in college.”
Oftentimes, students who move schools frequently struggle to interact with their new peers, but this was not the case for Hayes.
“She joined newspaper and immediately took an interest in getting to know her peers, and getting to know the community at Santa Fe,” Hayes’ AP Lit teacher Stephanie Bray said. “She stepped up right away and wrote stories, and just immediately was embraced by the staff. So, I was really looking forward to actually being her full-time teacher this year.”
Hayes’ passion for helping people through healthcare stems from her own health conditions; she has a cerebral malformation that causes chronic migraines and arthritis, which affects both of her knees.
“I really struggle with my own health, and seeing the people I love and surround myself with struggle with stuff like that really made me find my place in neuroscience and keep going,” Hayes said.
This past November, Hayes’ step-mom passed away from breast cancer, but this didn’t stop her from being a dedicated student and friend.
“I have never been more impressed, I love this girl so much,” Bray said. “She had a really hard time, and she stayed on top of her work. For that to happen, and the kinds of things she had to take on as a high school kid, no high schooler should have to do that. And she never missed an assignment, and when she was late, she was emailing me. In my 15 years of teaching, I’ve never seen a kid lose a parent and still do their work every day.”
Around the same time as her step-mom’s passing, Hayes was working on her final Questbridge essay, which would eventually get her into Columbia.
“I wrote about Whataburger and Dr. Pepper, because I associate that with [my step-mom],” Hayes said. “An important thing for me is honoring her. Even if it’s small things, like writing about her in essays. It made me really proud that I got into my top college with an essay that talked about her, and not only her story, but my own as well.”
This hardship fueled her to reach her goals, in her step-mom’s honor. Following her education, she plans to become a pediatric neurologist, so she can help people similar to herself.
“A lot of minorities just don’t get diagnosed,” Hayes said. “There’s such a lack of research, and that’s something I really wanna dive into. I just wanna help kids; that’s really important to me.”
