Student earns scholarship from McDonald’s charity

A graduating high school senior’s diligence paid off in the form of a college scholarship from fast food giant McDonald’s.

Cristian Apolinar, 18, was awarded $1,500 from McDonald’s Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Las Vegas scholarship program. He said he was the only one from Nye County to apply for the scholarship.

McDonald’s raised $42,829 in Southern Nevada restaurants for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Las Vegas scholarship program during its fifth annual Green for Grads scholarship fundraiser event on April 10.

“It’s incredible to see the impact we can make in the lives of these hard-working Southern Nevada students by coming together as neighbors and community partners,” said James Vance, president of the Greater Las Vegas Operator Association. “Our local owner/operators recognize the ambition of these students and look forward to seeing their outstanding accomplishments as they continue to follow their educational dreams.”

The money raised was done so by a one-day event that included 111 Southern Nevada McDonald’s restaurants that pledged to donate $1 from every Extra Value Meal purchased.

Apolinar applied for the scholarship online, by submitting basic personal information, his high school transcript and three essays.

“The essays were about our future and what we wanted to do as a future career and how it would help our community,” Apolinar said. “My future goal is to be a secondary education teacher in social studies.

“I want to help improve education in Nevada as we are ranked near the bottom.”

Apolinar, who ended his high school career with a 3.58 GPA, said he plans to take a year of classes at Great Basin College, before transferring up north to the University of Nevada, Reno thereafter.

Apolinar said he wanted to venture into the social studies field due to the lack of knowledge he noticed his classmates possessed in the subject.

“I love everything that has to do with culture and civilization,” he said. “Mostly a lot of our students at the high school don’t know where some countries are located and I want to make them aware that there’s different cultures and different societies all over the world.”