{"id":3316,"date":"2025-04-04T18:28:46","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T18:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/national-esea-distinguished-schools\/2244-autosave-v1\/alexandra-mercado-ruelas\/"},"modified":"2025-04-04T19:10:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T19:10:17","slug":"alexandra-mercado-ruelas","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/secretary-of-education-scholars\/2025-delaware-secretary-of-education-scholars\/alexandra-mercado-ruelas\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexandra Mercado-Ruelas"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"student_container\">\n<div role=\"region\" aria-label=\"Personal information about Alexandra Mercado-Ruelas\" class=\"grid\">\n\t<div class=\"grid-item grid-item-med grid-item-fixed picture\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/04\/mercado_ruelas_alexandra_h.jpg\" width=\"270\" alt=\"Headshot of Alexandra Mercado-Ruelas\">\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"grid-item grid-item-med grid-item-fixed nomination\">\n\t\t<h2 class=\"scholar_nomination_statement\">Nomination Statement<\/h2>\n\t\tAlexandra Mercado-Ruelas is a driven and devoted student. She is ranked first in her graduating class with a 4.46 cumulative GPA. She received College Board's 2024 National Hispanic Recognition Award. Alexandra has efficiently managed her time, attending school while working, running her small business, and staying involved throughout her community. Alexandra plays soccer, is an active member of the National Honor Society, and co-founder of William Penn's International Student Union. She regularly volunteers at her church and helps translate at local primary schools. Alexandra plans on majoring in psychology, intending to attend graduate school to become a child psychologist.\n\t<\/div>\t\t<div class=\"grid-item grid-item-med logo\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"280\" src=\"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/04\/william_penn_high_school.jpg\" alt=\"Logo of Penn (William) High School\">\n\t\t<\/div>\t\t<div class=\"grid-item grid-item-med personal\">\n\t\t\t&ldquo;My parents are my constant source of motivation. From a young age, they have instilled in me the importance of an education, not for the mere significance a degree holds but for the power that stands within that knowledge. Today, I dedicate my accomplishments to my parents who left their country for better opportunities. Their daily sacrifices and continuous hard work have paved my path, a path I am dedicated to follow to fulfill the dreams they couldn't pursue.&rdquo;\n\t\t<\/div>\t\t<div class=\"grid-item grid-item-med picture\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"270\" src=\"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/04\/mercado_ruelas_alexandra_1.jpg\" alt=\"\">\n\t\t<\/div>\t\t<div class=\"grid-item grid-item-med picture\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"270\" src=\"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/04\/mercado_ruelas_alexandra_2.jpg\" alt=\"\">\n\t\t<\/div>\t\t<div class=\"grid-item grid-item-med picture\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"270\" src=\"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/04\/mercado_ruelas_alexandra_3.jpg\" alt=\"\">\n\t\t<\/div><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My parents are my constant source of motivation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3003,"parent":3460,"menu_order":62,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"protect_children":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3316","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"school":"Penn (William) High School","school_logo":1662,"student_images":[3313,3314,3315],"nomination_statement":"Alexandra Mercado-Ruelas is a driven and devoted student. She is ranked first in her graduating class with a 4.46 cumulative GPA. She received College Board's 2024 National Hispanic Recognition Award. Alexandra has efficiently managed her time, attending school while working, running her small business, and staying involved throughout her community. Alexandra plays soccer, is an active member of the National Honor Society, and co-founder of William Penn's International Student Union. She regularly volunteers at her church and helps translate at local primary schools. Alexandra plans on majoring in psychology, intending to attend graduate school to become a child psychologist.","personal_statement":"My parents are my constant source of motivation. From a young age, they have instilled in me the importance of an education, not for the mere significance a degree holds but for the power that stands within that knowledge. Today, I dedicate my accomplishments to my parents who left their country for better opportunities. Their daily sacrifices and continuous hard work have paved my path, a path I am dedicated to follow to fulfill the dreams they couldn't pursue.","add_quotes":true},"checksum":["207c5f4317acab49cf5e24db4cd5d5d0a6fa3770"],"sw_mod_date":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3316\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3460"}],"acf:attachment":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3315"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3314"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.delaware.gov\/award-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}