Just ask Braedon Suminski of the Early College program at Timken High School. He has one. Specifically, he has a four-year full tuition scholarship to Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. thanks to the QuestBridge scholarship.

Braedon expects to graduate in the spring with an associate’s degree in electromechanical engineering technology from Stark State College, and a diploma from Timken High.

His interest in engineering, fueled by his favorite television show, “Myth Busters” on the Discovery Channel, plans to study engineering physics at Washington and Lee.

And he will go for free with a QuestBridge Scholarship.

QuestBridge college scholarships unite academically talented students with top universities

QuestBridge, an initiative of the Quest Scholars Program, serves, in its own words, “as an intermediary between the nation’s brightest, under-served youth and leading institutions of higher education.” It provides free college tuition for academically excellent students through scholarships for low income families.

In some cases, under-served means students from low-income families who could not afford a college degree from universities such as MIT, Columbia, University of Chicago, Northwestern, Stanford or University of Notre Dame. In all, there are 27 prestigious colleges and universities participating in the low income scholarship opportunity through QuestBridge, and Washington and Lee is one of the newest to the program.

To participate in the QuestBridge College Match program, a qualified student lists up to eight colleges and universities he or she would be willing to attend, in rank order. The student agrees to accept the highest-rank college that grants acceptance, and receives free college tuition at the institution. Braedon knew by early December that Washington and Lee wanted him.

Canton’s Early College program paves the way to a future in engineering

He knew four years ago that he was headed for an Early College education, the opportunity to earn an associate’s degree from Stark State while attending high school at either Timken or McKinley in the Canton City School District.

He can thank his parents, Donald and Dorene Suminski, who saw it as an opportunity too good to pass up.

“My parents really want us to get as much as we can out of college, and they pretty much decided that we would do the Early College program,” Braedon said. The “we” he was referring to was his sister, Kieran, who was in the first graduating class from Stark State and Timken in the spring of 2009. She attended Bryn Mawr College outside Philadelphia but is transitioning to Ohio State University. Braedon also has a younger sister, Teagan, who is a sophomore at Timken’s Early College program.

In case you are wondering what else Braedon does when he’s not excelling in his studies to the point of earning a QuestBridge College Match full tuition scholarship, he runs cross country, plays soccer, wrestles and plays baseball at Timken. And he finds time for the Model U.N. program.