From building robots with Legos in third grade to competing in the 2025 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) World Championship during her senior year, Montwood High School graduate Samantha Villareal is just starting to pursue her dreams. This fall, she will begin her next chapter at Harvard University.
Samantha, who graduated as the salutatorian in June, is set to begin Harvard's prestigious mechanical engineering program in August, supported by a four-year scholarship valued at nearly $90,000.
"I feel like I've been preparing for this for a long time, and I feel so ready that I'm just excited to keep pushing on to the next thing," said Samantha, who is also the recipient of the SISD Foundation’s Ryan Beard Memorial Scholarship. "It's going to be a big shift, but I have an army of people that have supported me, and you know, I think I owe it to them just to go out there and give it my all."
In recognition of her outstanding accomplishments, Samantha was selected to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the Socorro ISD Board of Trustees regular meeting in July 2025.
At Sgt. Roberto Ituarte Elementary School, Samantha showcased her impressive coding and robotics skills in the robotics club. She built robots using Legos and competed in the district's ROBOCOM competition for students in fourth through eighth grade. By the time she reached fifth grade at Spec. Rafael Hernando III Middle School, her team had progressed to the FIRST Lego League (FLL) competition and went on to compete at the FLL World Championship in sixth grade.
"For the first ROBOCOM that I attended, I was just a mascot. I was wearing a cardboard robot costume, and we were just dancing, and that was my first-ever team role in robotics. And then it really stuck with me when I moved up to fifth grade. That's the year we advanced to Legoland, and so I really grasped the competitive aspects, and that's where I just knew that I loved it!"
As time went on, her skills and confidence in designing, building and programming robots improved, and by seventh grade, she was competing in the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) robotics competition against high school students.
During her sophomore year at Montwood High School, she was a key member of the school’s first-ever FRC team. In their rookie year, the team competed at the World Championship, showcasing their talent and dedication on a global stage.
"I felt really happy that I got to finish it off at worlds," said Samantha, who served as her team’s captain during her junior and senior years. "After 10 years of this kind of commitment to robotics, it was such a blessing to be there with, like, some of my best friends that I've gotten close to over the years. At worlds, you see all the levels – FLL, FTC and FRC. So, knowing that I had gone fully through the program and being able to reflect on where I started to where I am now, I couldn't have imagined it, but I wouldn't have done it any other way."
In her senior year, she felt immense pride as a Ram when Montwood High School proudly earned the National Certificate for STEM Excellence (NCSE) – Campus Certification from the National Institute for STEM Education (NISE). The school’s SYNERGI4 STEM program was instrumental in fostering Samantha’s enthusiasm for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), providing her with a solid foundation through challenging coursework, engaging hands-on projects, and practical applications that prepare students for real-world challenges.
In June, SISD received NISE’s National Certificate for STEM Excellence - District Certification, becoming the first district in West Texas and one of only three nationwide to achieve this distinction.
“It’s just so exciting, like literally anything that I can think about, that I'm passionate about, like I know with like a strong engineering background, I can take the steps to problem solve and develop it and work with a great team along the way,” Samantha said.
Samantha's impressive achievements, including her selection for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's MITES Semester and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund's Youth Leadership Institute, garnered the attention of prestigious universities such as Harvard, Yale University, and the University of Texas at Austin. Each of these institutions offered her generous scholarships to attend.
Samantha’s mom, Adrienne Villareal, said her daughter had a big decision to make but she was confident her daughter would choose wisely and forge her own path.
“She got the email from Harvard, and we were like, ‘Just open it!’” Adrienne Villareal recalled. “We saw the confetti, and we just thought, ‘Oh, my gosh!’ Then we opened Yale, and we were just so emotional. It was beyond what we dreamed of for her.”
It didn't take long for Samantha to make her decision. After touring Harvard’s Science and Engineering Complex, she felt certain that it was the right place for her to start her future.
She is excited to explore her career path in mechanical engineering, whether that leads to medical device development or the biomedical sector. Additionally, she plans to join Harvard’s Formula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) race team. Most importantly, she is committed to promoting STEM fields to inspire future generations of scientists and engineers.
“We're all here to work hard in STEM,” Samantha said. “It doesn't matter your gender, your race, any differences we have. So, the beauty of STEM is that it brings us together.”