As the second semester rolls around, seniors anxiously await acceptance letters from colleges in hopes of going to college for a better education. But senior Giang Nguyen has nothing to worry about.

Nguyen was one of the selected recipients of the Posse Scholarship. He received a four-year, full-tuition scholarship worth more than $140,000, from a Posse Foundation partnering Institution University of Wisconsin.

“[Winning the scholarship money was] like the icing on the cake,” said Nguyen, “because now I don’t have to worry about paying off loans for the rest of my life and I can take risks without worrying about financial problems.”

According to the foundation, scholars are nominated by either their high school counselors or a community-based organization. After being nominated, students participate in a rigorous selection process, called the Dynamic Assessment Process, from September through December. The process included three rounds of interviews.

At the end of the interview process, each student met with a team of people from the college or university of their choice, including the Dean of Admissions, tenured faculty and the school’s president. Scholars were then selected through collaboration between Posse staff and the partnering institutions.

“The whole process – especially the interview parts – weren’t so nerve-wracking actually,” said Nguyen, “They told me to be myself and that is exactly what I did.”

Nguyen was accepted into the University of Wisconsin and expecting to double major in computer science and electrical engineering, He is very enthusiastic about his hobbies.

“I love to program, sometimes I don’t sleep and just program for days because I love it. It makes me happy,” said Nguyen

With such passion for programming, Nguyen interned at a software company over the summer and is currently working on a startup game program.

“I’m working for a friend who’s in New York, We are creating a game and there are few of us working on it,” said Nguyen, “I hope it becomes successful.”

Admirably, Nguyen admits that he has only participated in things he wished to do rather than what others wanted him to do.

“I knew I wanted to be a programmer and do things related to computer science and electrical engineering, so I honestly gave my best in that area,” said Nguyen

Hoping to get far in life, Nguyen dreams are set high.

“I’m going to be the next Mark Zukerberg,” said Nguyen “except much more fashionable.”

Nguyen gives the following advice to underclassmen: “Be the best at what you do and don’t try to shape yourself into what college wants you to be”