TAMPA — As we celebrate high school scholarship recipients this week, we’re bringing you the story of a Tampa teenager who plans to pursue a career in journalism.
What you need to know
Lilly Molina is a Spectrum News High School Scholar
She will receive a $1,000 scholarship and plans to study journalism at Elon University
Molina has a 4.0 GPA and is president of the school’s National Honor Society
The day we met Lilly Molina, it was straight to a National Honor Society officer meeting after school. Molina is the president.
“I was vice president last year and I was very surprised,” he said. “That’s what encouraged me to be more involved in school when I saw that someone like me, who was an underdog, people didn’t really know me, but I got vice president and now that I’m president, it’s very motivating. me.”
This drive to succeed is something that seems to have come naturally to Molina. With a perfect 4.0 GPA, it’s no wonder she was selected as one of the Spectrum Bay News 9 High School Scholarships.
“I actually want to be a journalist when I grow up,” she said. “I’m going to school to be a journalist.”
Despite considering herself an underdog, Molina is actually ahead of most journalism students her age. She will also graduate from high school with her associate of arts degree.
“I spent the last four years from my freshman year trying to make it through the varsity program,” he said.
Molina is also an editor and writer for The Daily Falcon, the Leto High School newspaper.
This is the paper’s first year, and Molina got involved right away. It was one of his first opportunities to put his dream to the test.
“Covid 2020, all I could do was write, but I wasn’t very good with descriptions and details and with pictures to portray a whole scene in someone’s mind with just words,” he said.
“Then I said, ‘What’s a good way of writing where you can just tell it like it is and report and do good and have a positive impact?’ And that was journalism.”
Molina and her best friend also launched their own podcast on Spotify.
The podcast aims to help students navigate high school, something Molina mastered. Next year, she’ll rise from the ashes as a freshman when she’s a proud Phoenix at Elon University in North Carolina.
