My transition into high school ended up shaping why I care about math the way I do. It was the hardest academic year of my life, and nothing about it felt comfortable. I tested into the top math program at Marist and immediately realized I was the weakest link. Coming from a small grammar school with only fourteen classmates, I knew I did not have a solid math background. My grammar school had changed its curriculum three times, which meant we relearned the same material over and over and never advanced. By the time I graduated eighth grade, I had never seen an imaginary number and I didn’t even know what a parabola was. That all changed during my first week at Marist. We jumped straight into conic sections, and I felt completely lost. My imposter syndrome kicked in immediately, and there were days (months) that I wished I had never signed up for Honors Algebra. But I also knew Marist’s honors math program had the strongest reputation out of all the Catholic schools in Illinois. If I could survive it, it would help me reach what I really wanted to do, which was engineering. During the first semester, I earned a low B. It didn’t feel great, but I was honestly relieved that I made it through. That’s when I decided that I was done just barely scraping by, I wanted to get better. So every night I spent over an hour and fifteen minutes on math. Eventually, things started to make sense. By the end of the year, I raised my grade to a B+. Those Bs might look like stains on a transcript, but they mean something completely different to me. They show that I did not quit when I felt behind. They show the effort I put in when nothing about the class came naturally. This is where my love for math comes from. The subject forced me to build skills I did not start with. It taught me patience and consistency. Every year after freshman year, I kept climbing, and now I am taking AP BC Calculus as a senior, the hardest math class Marist has to offer. I love math because it has been the biggest test of how far I can push myself.

My name is Devin Feliciano and I’ve always been the type of person who sees a challenge and embraces it. I am a 16 year old student attending Marist High School where I hold a 4.83 cumulative GPA and earned a 33 ACT score, but the numbers only tell part of the story. Going into my senior year, I have made the Dean’s list throughout my high school career and plan to continue the streak. I have been involved in a variety of clubs such as mock trial, investment, science, Latinos United, and amnesty club. I was also selected to be a part of both the National Honor Society and the Spanish National Honors Society. I also participated in the school’s wrestling team and recently joined a local Jiu Jitsu school at the beginning of my junior year. I have some work experience as an assistant coach for a local basketball team, an umpire for a local little league, landscaping for the little league and my community, and also home improvement projects with my father and neighbor for the community, including electrical and demolition work. My passion for engineering began with my high school robotics class. I fell in love with robotics and engineering because it allowed me to experiment and apply what I learn in other classes to the real world. As a result, I’ve decided to pursue a career in aerospace engineering. My goal is to graduate college with an aerospace engineering degree and work for either NASA, the Air Force, or a defense company. My current education has supported these goals because I have tried to build my schedule around engineering as best as possible while also fulfilling my required credits. I have taken the highest level of every subject offered each year with an emphasis on STEM. My high school offers the most rigorous and prestigious math course out of any catholic school in Illinois. While these classes have been demanding, I have been able to maintain strong grades and learn at a high speed. The next step along my path to success is to enroll in a prestigious engineering college such as Purdue or UIUC, similar to Kaila. However, with these colleges being so prestigious, they are also very expensive. The Kalia D. Davis Memorial Scholarship can help my family and me a great deal in funding my goals and furthering my education. I know that I have the capability to achieve great things in the engineering field if given the opportunity to learn from the best. With your support, I can pursue my passion and shape the future of aerospace engineering. My academic success proves that I thrive in class, but many people perform well in school. What makes me stand out, however, is my ambition and desire to excel in all that I do. I have a curiosity about the world and a drive to innovate. These are qualities that only a select few people possess. People like Kalia and myself will do whatever it takes to preserve our ideas and succeed. I never had the honor of meeting Kalia, but from everything I’ve learned, she was someone who chased her goals without hesitation and lifted others while doing it. That’s the kind of person I strive to be. Whether I’m helping coach kids, wiring lights with my dad, or solving physics problems late at night, I give it my all. If awarded this scholarship, I won’t just see it as money for college. I’ll see it as a responsibility to carry forward the same passion, grit, and purpose that defined Kalia’s life.

I’ve never really thought of myself as a “business person.” I didn’t grow up selling lemonade or selling shoes. But I’ve always been the type of person who sees a problem and can’t stop thinking about how to fix it. That instinct is exactly what led to the creation of my company, OmniShake. My journey into entrepreneurship began with Marist’s IDEA class which was modeled after Shark Tank. The class was divided into teams of five and tasked with solving a real world problem. At the end of the year, we would pitch our business to a panel of judges, and the winning team would receive a $10,000 grand prize. My group was all in from the start. We started by listing every daily problem we faced. Most were unrealistic or not worth building a business around. But one issue stood out: the frustration of clumping powdered supplements in leaky, low-quality plastic shaker bottles. We had all experienced clumping supplements, leaking, and difficulty cleaning cheap, plastic bottles. We knew that we could create a high-quality product that would put an end to these difficulties. Before we even had a product, my team voted me in as CEO. Their trust meant everything to me, and I promised to lead with focus and commitment. The beginning wasn’t smooth. We struggled to work as a team and we had no clear direction. But once we landed on our solution, a stainless steel, leak proof shaker with built in sifter technology, everything changed. We became a functional team and we were passionate about our product. We contacted many manufacturers until we found the perfect one who could deliver exactly what we envisioned. We paid $80 out of our own pockets to order a prototype, laser-engraved with our logo. When it arrived, it was everything we had dreamed of. This only fueled our passion for innovation and drive to succeed. OmniShake taught me entrepreneurship, communication, and leadership, qualities I now share with Stelios. I also learned how to manage a team, make hard decisions, and create something from scratch. I began to see how school connected directly to real life. Math gave me the foundation for margins, cost analysis, and planning. Writing and communication mattered every time we pitched, sent emails, or created product descriptions. I wasn’t just learning in class. I was using those skills every day. On final pitch night, we showed up in suits and delivered the best version of our presentation. After all our preparation and work, OmniShake was selected as the winner. We received $10,000 in startup funding. That money helped us build our website, place our first order of bottles, and officially launch OmniShake. Today, our site is live at omnishake.com. We’ve already started taking preorders and building a real customer base. But the success of OmniShake is not just about sales. It represents something bigger. It shows my ability to lead, innovate, and to execute on an idea. My academic record, including a 4.83 weighted GPA and 33 ACT score, shows that I thrive in school. This is something that is true for many people but what makes me similar to Stelios is our ambition and entrepreneurial spirit. Like him, I have a curiosity about the world and a drive to innovate. These are qualities that only a select few people possess. People like Stelios and myself will do whatever it takes to preserve our ideas and succeed.