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Canyon Springs High grad goes from homeless to $100,000 scholarship winner
Dr Pepper helps Ivon Padilla-Rodriguez realizes her dream of a college education
Special to the Sun
Ivon Padilla-Rodriguez won $100,000 in scholarship money from Dr Pepper during a football-throwing contest at halftime of the Southeastern Conference championship game.
Friday, Dec. 9, 2011 | 2 a.m.
Dr. Pepper Tuition Throw 2011
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Las Vegas teenager Ivon Padilla-Rodriguez couldn’t hold back her tears of joy.
Standing on the football field at the packed Georgia Dome last Saturday, the 18-year-old had just won a $100,000 college scholarship from Dr Pepper for her accuracy in throwing a football, and it was dawning on her that she could now pay for college.
It was a remarkable accomplishment, given that she had learned to throw a football just a few days earlier.
And if you think that’s something, consider this: During her junior year at Canyon Springs High School in North Las Vegas, she was homeless for about three months after her family lost their house — and she went on to become co-valedictorian of her graduating class this year.
“I almost quit school because everything outside of school was so hard,” she says. “But I’ve always known since I was little that education would get me out of my problems. I should at least have one good thing in my life, and that would be going to school.”
So, winning the money? “It was the biggest relief. That is why I cried so hard,” she says. “My mom isn’t able to help me. She struggles to barely take care of my brother. So this is a huge money weight off my shoulders.”
Today, Padilla-Rodriguez is studying history and English in UNR’s honors program.
Her two accomplishments — attending UNR and winning the football-throwing competition — might sound disparate but in fact reflect how a young woman set about to reach her goals — one of which will bankroll the other.
Attending high school had been its own challenge, given the competing stresses of helping her family figure out where to sleep any given night after they became homeless. She, her brother and their mom were seeking shelter every night, moving from one friend’s home to another in their pursuit of others’ hospitality.
She remembers one morning waking up in a cramped one-bed apartment behind the Stratosphere — one of the seediest neighborhoods in Las Vegas — and giving serious consideration to allowing academics to take a back seat.
But she stuck with it, instinctively understanding the importance of education, and on the weight of her great grades and decision to stay in Nevada, qualified for the state’s Millennium Scholarship and other grants, and enrolled at UNR.
The financial help wouldn’t cover all her bills, though. And then she heard of the Dr Pepper competition and the possibility of winning a college scholarship.
She delivered a heartfelt message in her nomination video about how her life’s ambitions included helping underprivileged children. She has plans of attending law school and wants to be nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, but spoke about the grim reality of having those dreams unfulfilled because of her financial limitations.
She also spoke about how she wants to help Hispanics become more engaged in American politics. And, for better or worse, she admitted she didn’t begin drinking soda until recently.
Her video was persuasive; with just a few days' notice, she was invited to fly to Atlanta for last Friday's qualifying event.
And then she swallowed hard. She had never thrown a football.
Enter UNR freshman quarterback Cody Fajardo.
Fajardo and Padilla-Rodriguez sat next to each other in theater class and he didn’t hesitate when she approached looking for his help. She even got to practice on the field at the Wolf Pack’s Mackay Stadium. “When she told me she had no idea how to throw a football, I was like, ‘Oh, OK, I’ll teach you the best I can,’ ” Fajardo said. “She was actually throwing really well.”
With just those few days of practice under her belt, Padilla-Rodriguez found herself in the center of a football field on Friday, trying to qualify for the big money the next day. From five yards away, she threw her football nine times into a two-foot-diameter hole in the side of an oversized Dr Pepper can — good enough to qualify for the finals during the halftime of college football’s Southeastern Conference championship game.
On the big day, she had 30 seconds to throw as many footballs as she could through the hole. It was a nerve-wracking competition; her competitor was doing the same, just a few feet away. To calm herself, Padilla-Rodriguez sang Broadway musicals in her head before throwing. She made 13 of her tosses; the runner-up made 11.
Standing on the field with her: Steven DelaCruz, who was her co-valedictorian and who also is attending UNR. “She has gone through a lot of hardships, but keeps going and going,” he says. “She is really an inspiration to me.”
When she won the competition, one of the first people she thanked on national television was her coach, Fajardo.
“She did a lot better than I thought,” he says.
And so, yes, she cried, standing there on the football field during halftime. It was an unpredictable journey, and today her dreams for her future seem even more possible.
“I wouldn’t say that academics come easy to me or that I’m smart,” she says, “but I work really, really hard and make sure I get all of my work done.”
Discussion: 7 comments so far…
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congratulations. some words of advice; dont gamble on the strip, if you need to cross the street,dont and see if the lingerie league needs a quarterback.
Thank God for all our windfalls.
Find a trusted advisor. Make it last, and grow your life huge. You got the stuff. And one chance in a million. You got the arm and the heart and the head. Rejoice and be quiet inside. This is the real deal. No practice run.
I happened to be watching it live when it was on TV, and it was fantastic. I can't think of anyone more deserving than Ivon. Her perserverance and resolve is truly inspirational.
It's a great story, although it's troubling to hear that a co-valedictorian of a Nevada High School and Millennium Scholarship recipient needed to win a half-time contest to stay in college. I wonder if the poor gal who only hit 10 will be able to pursue her dream of higher education.
Emthree,
I had the same trouble watching it. To see someone so motivated and under the stress of crushing tuition have to throw footballs into a hole during a half time show just to get a career which benefits society is troubling. I can relate with all the deployments I went on to earn my GI Bill. I'm very, very thankful for it but I wish we had a better way for motivated, hard working folks to earn their education without performing circus tricks or receiving fire.
Ivon,
Congratulations! Very excited for you! I wish you the best in your future academic endeavors! You will do great! Congratulations!
Let's Educate all motivated students like her, regardless of their ability to pay. The increased taxes they will pay over their lifetimes will more than make up the cost of helping them now and being in debt forever.
It also speaks to Corporatized Universities who seem to have no constraint of how much money they want to extort from Parents, Students and Taxpayers. A reasonable solution must be found.