Sopheary Wiley-Ly remembers the Wednesdays of her Academic Enrichment Phase (AEP) year vividly. She got up early and went to school like your average student. But then she still had to go to Rainier Scholars, and then to ballet class. Sopheary changed into her leotard and tights in the backseat of her dad’s car, ate dinner between destinations, and didn’t get home until 8:30 at night, where homework awaited. She was ten years old.
“Looking back now, I can see just how much pressure I was under,” says Sopheary, now a junior at Forest Ridge School and a member of Cohort 19. “I was spreading myself thin. In areas where I would typically excel, I was mediocre at best. I got my first C on a math test, and ended up with Bs and Cs across the board in Rainier Scholars.”
Sopheary’s experience captures something essential about the Rainier Scholars journey: the path to educational opportunity is paved with real, tangible sacrifices.
These sacrifices aren’t abstract concepts or minor inconveniences. They’re missed family trips, exhausted Saturday mornings doing extra coursework, and the weariness that comes from giving your all to multiple demanding commitments.
“I had to sacrifice a lot of my free time, weekends, and time that could have been spent with other things,” said one scholar, who asked to remain anonymous. “Saturdays are an important day for my social life, but many of them were spent with my head in a book, which was definitely rough for a fifth grader.”
The sacrifices take different forms for different students. “I had to sacrifice my time and effort to my family and friends,” said Azania Santiago from Cohort 21. For others, it’s missing once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. One student had to skip a trip to Somalia during AEP. Another missed a vacation. One scholar remembers consistently nodding off from lack of sleep during AEP. Everyone sacrificed their summers and Saturdays.
The common thread among these sacrifices is time. Time is the most precious resource any young person has, and these scholars chose to invest their time in a demanding program that asks for excellence, on top of everything else in their lives.
Sopheary’s story doesn’t end with that over-full Wednesday schedule. After AEP, she attended a private middle school during COVID—an experience she describes as isolating, marked by microaggressions and exclusion. With no other Rainier Scholars students to connect with, she began to question everything. “I was all alone, and I associated all private schools with my experience in middle school. I thought that private education wouldn’t be the right fit for me.”
She transferred to a public middle school, only to discover that wasn’t right for her either. “I thought that doing Rainier Scholars was a mistake,” she said.
And each scholar went through their own journey of questioning if they made the right decision. These moments of doubt aren’t failures—they’re honest responses to genuinely difficult circumstances.
Then, Sopheary gave private school a second chance and found her place at Forest Ridge. “I like where I am right now,” she said. “I don’t think I could have ever experienced this same life without being a part of Rainier Scholars. It has opened up lots of doors for me, not just to the high school I’m going to now, but also all the connections I have with my classmates because of Rainier Scholars. This program brings a sense of community into every classroom because we have so many Rainier Scholars students at my school.”
The Rainier Scholars journey demands sacrifice. But what these scholars show us is that acknowledging the difficulty doesn’t diminish the achievement. If anything, it makes their success more remarkable. They’re earning good grades and college acceptances while learning to navigate pressure, to persevere through doubt, to build community in unfamiliar spaces, and to trust themselves enough to change course when something isn’t working.
Sopheary still has long days—she continues to practice ballet after school while managing a rigorous academic schedule. “It’s definitely easier now,” she said. And it’s not easier because the work is less demanding, but because she’s grown into someone who can handle the challenge.
That transformation from an overwhelmed ten year old changing in the backseat of a car to a confident young woman who found her place is what makes the sacrifices worth it. She knows that the weight she carries today is building the strength she’ll need tomorrow.
Facing your own struggles?
The scholars we surveyed had clear-eyed advice for younger students considering their high school pathways. Sopheary urges students to trust their instincts: “Definitely go with your gut. Try not to worry about how prestigious your school is—your grades will speak for themselves.”
Leah Andamelak, from Cohort 21, agrees. “Go to the school you feel the best at,” she said.
One student advised, “Really consider something new and branching out because although it is scary, I found it to be the right choice for me and so have many others. But don’t allow others to pressure you into applying to independent schools.”
And all the scholars agreed with the advice: Don’t procrastinate. Ask for help when you need it. Get organized. Take risks and step outside your comfort zone. It’s worth it.