Senior Bianca Mayo says one of the best days of her life was receiving a text from her mother saying she had been accepted as a Gates Millennium Scholar. “I actually made her drive up to the campus because I didn’t believe her,” she said.

Mayo, a Pine Bluff High School graduate, is the only Gates Millennium Scholar at UALR. She graduates in May with a double major in history and philosophy.

She said the scholarship created an open door where there was none.

The fully-funded scholarship is provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has awarded more than $314,000 to UALR since its inception. The program was created in 1999 and has produced over 18,000 scholars.

“It has lifted a major burden off my shoulders and allowed me to focus solely on my education. It has created opportunities for me to help others, and I am eternally grateful,” Mayo said.

Mayo’s love for history comes from her father who influenced her pursuit of the major.

“He would recount a different historical battle or event to me every day,” she said.

But it was by chance she found an interest in philosophy after taking an ethics course and instantly falling in love with it. She joined the UALR Ethics Bowl Team to foster her new interest and quickly added Ethics as a second major.

“I can honestly say I have really developed a love for philosophy because it allows me to question the world around me and my place in it,” Mayo said.

Her eventual goal is to work on a hospital board as an ethicist.

Mayo wants to pursue a master’s degree in philosophy and public health or history education, although she is still exploring her options. She added that she had some of the best mentors at UALR.

“I have been given amazing opportunities with the backing of my professors,” said Mayo. “I couldn’t have asked for better.”