05-02-2025
NTO poised to send first student to Yale
Feb. 4—From the time he was a little kid, Adrian Rodriguez set high expectations for himself and he's all about fulfilling them.
An 18-year-old New Tech Odessa senior, Rodriguez took early admission to Yale University. He will be the first NTO student to go to an Ivy League school, according to Ector County ISD.
"My parents always focused on higher education. I was placed in a private school for most of my academic career, until middle school and high school. But I think being set in that environment with such a stress on higher education really taught me that I can go that far. So if I really want to go to an Ivy League like Yale, I need to start working as soon as possible so I did. I'd say I'm very ambitious, so I wanted to see it as like a goal instead of a far-off dream," Rodriguez said.
Initially, he wanted to apply to other Ivy League schools like Harvard and Brown, but he decided to apply to Yale early admission and to University of Texas at Austin regular admission. Since he's in the top 6 percent of his class, he gets automatic admission to UT.
"But it was just UT and Yale," Rodriguez said.
When he found out he got into Yale, Rodriguez said he screamed.
"Then I called all my friends. I called my mom, I called my family, and then I did cry, happy tears, but I was just very excited. That's been my biggest dream and goal for my whole life, pretty much, was to go that far and get into a really good school like that. Seeing it come true was very emotional, very exciting," Rodriguez said.
Right now, he's leaning toward studying neuroscience whether it be a neuroscientist, neurologist or neurosurgeon.
"I like a lot of things, so it might change, but that's the number one right now," Rodriguez said.
He hasn't been to visit Yale yet in New Haven, Conn., but he's planning a trip in April during Bulldog Days.
According to the Yale website, they expect more than 1,000 admitted students "to visit campus for a jam-packed 48 hours designed to give them a taste of life at Yale. This is our chance to showcase everything that makes Yale special."
Rodriguez said his family is very proud of him, but also sad because he's going so far away. But he noted that he'll be down for the holidays.
He added that he thinks New Tech has helped prepare him for Yale, especially its project-based learning.
"I'd say that really helped me sort of break out of my shell when communicating with people on projects, which is very important, especially for going into a research-based field, because you have to work with other people for these research projects and such. But I think it's really prepared me for college work as well with the amount of writing, the emphasis we have on writing here. That's really helped me elevate my writing style; elevate my writing level as well. I've just learned a lot here about higher education, about communicating with people, properly, giving presentations, all that stuff," Rodriguez said.
At NTO, he is part of the National Honor Society, secretary of the Junior-Senior Board and captain of the Academic Decathlon team. His sophomore year, he was involved in the Student Spaceflight Experiment Program, which involved a lot of research. He played soccer for seven years and was involved in action shooting with Permian Basin Young Guns.
A few days after he was admitted to Yale, Rodriguez gave a presentation to the staff at NTO to show them that he got in and thank them for all they have done for him.
"That was very cute. It was very emotional. It was fun," Rodriguez said.
He added that he'd like to give a presentation for the student body as well as a way to encourage them.
"It may seem like a far off dream going to so far away into such a school with a low acceptance rate, but if that's really what you want in life, I think with enough hard work and with enough passion you can really push yourself to get there," Rodriguez said.
As for tips for studying for the SAT, one of the standardized college entrance tests, Rodriguez said don't put it off. He suggests students start preparing a year before by looking at what the tested subjects are and what they are going to ask you and take as much time as you can.
"I procrastinated, but I'd say don't. Don't put it off until the last minute. Get as many resources as you can; free resources. There's plenty. YouTube, Khan Academy, their course is brilliant on the SAT. I'd say that helped me the most. But really try not to put it off and make sure you sleep and don't stay up before the test," he added.
Rodriguez said he's good at math and English, but he loves math because of how objective it is.
He has one younger brother who is a freshman at NTO. His brother wants to go to Harvard as Harvard and Yale have a rivalry.
"I absolutely believe he can do it," Rodriguez said.
He added that he would like to see people set their expectations high because he feels that they are set low and that holds people back from reaching their full potential.
"We need to shoot for the stars. We need to go past the stars, because truly, if you're that passionate about something and you love something that much, I believe you can get there eventually," Rodriguez said.
NTO Principal Abel Avila said Rodriguez is a dedicated, determined learner.
"We're all proud of him. And him being the first one just goes to show you how this school has really transformed from how it first started to now where academics is becoming a very high priority," Avila said.
He added that he hopes Rodriguez' accomplishment will inspire other students to try for top-notch schools around the country.
"That was one of many that he wanted to go to, but ultimately decided on Yale. We do have some learners (here) now are starting to reach out there and start thinking about maybe there are bigger universities that I could get into," Avila said.
