7 Oakland students awarded full scholarships to college: 'I was crying'

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Northeastern University in Oakland announced it's teaming up with Oakland Unified to award high school graduates full ride scholarships.

This changes the lives of seven Oakland Unified grads forever.

"I was very surprised because I actually didn't think that I would get it," said Nyari Wright, who plans on majoring in computer science and behavior and neuroscience.

"I was like, this is not real, I had to take a lap around the school, I was like, is this real?," asked Angela Vergara, also a Northeastern University scholarship recipient.

Valued at $85,000 a year, that means full tuition, books and room and board -- all covered.

"I was crying when I found out, I called my mom and said you won't believe it and she was so proud because we were all worried about paying for college," Vergara said.

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This goal of this new partnership with Oakland Unified School District is to increase the number of Oakland students at Northeastern University.

Moving forward, the university plans to award 10 full scholarships to Oakland students every year.

Dan Sachs, Dean of the Oakland campus, says this is modeled after a similar program on the university's Boston campus.

"We know the impact that it has. That investment in the kids in this community will pay back not just to Oakland, and Northeastern, but around the world, Those kids are going to be great leaders for all of us," he said.

Just two years ago, Northeastern merged with Mills college amid financial trouble.

"I think events like this are indicative of the commitment to build on Mills college," said Sachs. "Our expectation is that we will be bigger, better and more engaged in the community," he added.

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The scholarship requires students to spend their first year at the Oakland campus.

After that, students can continue studying at any of Northeastern's 13 campuses worldwide.

"Next year, I'm going to go to Boston," said Wright.

She will be the first in her family to go to college.

"I was originally planning on going to a community college because a four year is so expensive, and my mom is a single mom," she said.

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Angela Vergara never expected a full scholarship, after growing up in the Philippines and moving to Oakland in middle school.

Now, her dream of becoming a lawyer feels less out of reach.

"Even if life may seem like it's against you, you kind of just have to trust yourself and go through the process of hard stuff. You just have to push through it and everything will work out. Hard work always pays off," she said.

Move in day for these scholarship recipients happens next week. The first day of school for Northeastern is on September 4.