2 Colorado Springs-area students named Boettcher scholars
May 9—The Boettcher Foundation selected two Pikes Peak region students for its prestigious scholarship program.
Widefield High School senior Abby Vsetecka and Air Academy High School senior Joseph Brock will each receive an $80,000 scholarship across four years as part of the foundation's 50-person class of 2023. More than 2,000 students applied for the program devoted to keeping Colorado's young difference makers in state.
Boettcher scholars demonstrate excellence well beyond the confines of the classroom. Successful candidates display intellectual curiosity and scholastic prowess, strong leadership potential, outstanding character and a commitment to the school and community through service, according to the foundation.
Those qualities combine to set Brock apart from other high schoolers, according to honors pre-calculus teacher Tateum Bowers, who wrote a letter of recommendation to the foundation in his support. The two have grown a family-like connection since Brock first took her class last year, she said.
"To see someone who's so well-rounded and is so intrinsically motivated be acknowledged is such a win. He deserves it, and just probably, I mean, not that we have favorites, but he's like the son I never had," Bowers said. "You get blessed with lots of kids as teachers, but to have someone this special come into your life and for you to really feel like, 'Oh my gosh, what I did is making such a difference in one human,' is really rewarding."
A typical Sunday finds Brock settled down in a Starbucks to work through organic chemistry for fun with a former-teacher-turned-Lockheed-Martin-engineer. A typical Christmas present is a textbook.
"These things are relaxing for me," Brock said.
"See, this is what I mean when I say Joseph's intrinsically motivated to learn," Bowers added.
Vsetecka's counselor notices many of the same qualities in her student, whom she has worked with for four years.
"She lives her passion. She doesn't just talk her passion," counselor Emily Christensen said.
Vsetecka has dreams of working in primary care and preventive medicine. She helped develop her school's Health Occupations Students of America chapter, a club for future health professionals that lit her passion for family medicine. On weekends she volunteers at UCHealth Memorial Hospital on the neuroscience and renal floor, where she works with patients who have suffered traumatic experiences such as strokes.
It's special to hear their stories, comfort them and help them grow stronger during a difficult period in their lives, she said.
"You get to know families really well and their situations beyond just health issues," Vsetecka said.
Brock's shared interest in one day becoming a doctor was inspired in part by his own "medical chaos."
Last March Brock was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, in which inflammation in his digestive tract required a foot of his small intestine to be removed. Though painful and time consuming, he found joy in watching the medical team "work their magic." He also had perfect tutors in his doctors, he said, who assisted him with his final exam project before going into surgery.
"Meet Joseph. Pure optimism," Bowers said. "He always says, 'I will not let that define me. I will be the fabulous person that I am,' and I love that, like, go get 'em."
Brock will attend the Colorado School of Mines, where he will study biochemistry and possibly pick up a second major in petroleum engineering — "I know, weird combination" — before pursuing medical school.
Vsetecka will study biology with an emphasis on public health at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She ultimately plans to work in family medicine to support patients of all ages.
"I kind of feel a little bit of impostor syndrome, like, man, how did I get here? But it's also kind of like a culmination of everything that I've put into high school and myself," Vsetecka said. "I'm really glad that Boettcher saw that in me. ... It's humbling and heart-warming and pretty special."
