For Sophia Lopez-Ramirez, it started with spelling.
The Springfield native and Cedarville High School senior, who was selected as the recipient of this year’s John H. McConnell Scholarship by the Columbus Blue Jackets Foundation, has put together a group of achievements throughout her high school career that is almost too extensive to list.
In many ways, her desire to excel and her connection with others began at a microphone, spelling words to the best of her abilities, and in the work she put in to become recognized nationally.
“I’d say I’ve always been someone who wants to be a high achiever,” Lopez-Ramirez said. “I think it started in first or second grade. I wanted to do the school spelling bee and I wanted to win the school spelling bee, and I did it. And I did it for years after that.
“That’s kind of where that ambition started. It was my first view of being like, ‘Hey, I can put in all this hard work and have it amount to something that makes me feel really proud of myself and that connects me to a lot of amazing people.’”
That humble start has led Lopez-Ramirez to the big stage of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, as well as inspired her to create a community spelling bee in her hometown; it put her on a TEDx stage to share her journey and describe how words connect us; it motivated her to take part in a variety of school and community initiatives; and it’s also started her path to the University of Chicago, where she hopes to further her education with an eye on helping communities like hers.
For all of those efforts, Lopez-Ramirez was recognized along with the two other scholarship winners at the April 4 Blue Jackets game after interviewing with the CBJ Foundation and being chosen for the honor.
“I got the top three finalist interview and I was really, really excited,” she said. “Getting to go to the arena for that interview with the board was just an amazing experience. Everyone was so welcoming and I had a great time, and then the next day my family and I found out I got it. I remember just running down to the living room screaming, and it was just a really exciting time. I’m very, very grateful.
“Honestly, when I was recognized at the game, that was my second Blue Jackets game ever. It was a great experience just to watch hockey, which is something I don’t get to do too often. The atmosphere was great and I met a lot of cool people, so I had a really great time at the game.”
The Blue Jackets players in partnership with the Columbus Blue Jackets Foundation established the John H. McConnell Scholarship Fund in 2008 to honor the life and legacy of the team's late founder. Mr. Mac had a deep-rooted belief in the importance of giving back to the community, and the scholarship fund was created to recognize a high school senior who closely personifies the character and leadership that Mr. Mac valued.
The $10,000 scholarship is awarded to one Central Ohio student each year for their character, leadership and work in the community, and Lopez-Ramirez certainly qualifies. In the spelling world, she was a three-time qualifier for the Scripps National Spelling Bee, representing the region at the event in 2019, 2021 and ‘22. That led her to create the Champion City Spelling Bee, a community event for younger students that raised more than $1,000 for scholarships.
At Cedarville High School, Lopez-Ramirez served as president of student council, was on the quiz bowl team, ran track and field as well as cross country, and has been named a National Merit Scholarship finalist.
In the community, she has served on the Ohio Attorney General’s Teen Ambassador Board, worked with the NFL Foundation’s Kickoff for Kindness campaign, has participated in the Bringing Awareness to Students youth-led prevention program, served as an environmental justice intern at the Conscious Connect, and participated in the national Hispanic Scholarship Fund Youth Leadership Institute.
Oh, and she also plays the violin, earning the chance to perform with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, and works as a lifeguard, where she’s been credited with nine saves. If it seems like so many of her pursuits start with a focus on others, that has been no mistake.
“I love talking to people and I love working with people,” she said. “To hear other peoples’ ideas is so important to me. I enjoy getting to learn about other people and to get to share my experiences with them. I just really value getting to be involved with other peoples’ work and getting to involve as many people as I can in my work.”
Lopez-Ramirez also hasn't been afraid to step into a spotlight, whether it be at the national spelling bee or delivering an 11-minute TEDx youth talk in Dayton on how language is so much more than just words. She said much of that comes from the relationships built through spelling bees as well as attending Cedarville High School, a rural school between Columbus and Dayton with less than 250 students.
“I think to achieve the level of engagement and involvement I wanted to reach in high school, I absolutely had to put myself out there,” Lopez-Ramirez said. “It was something I had to learn, but looking back, it was a nonnegotiable just because of the size of my school and the opportunities that we had. Had I not taken every opportunity to put myself out there, I wouldn’t have known about or been involved in a lot of the things I've done.
“I’m very grateful to my school, to my amazing teachers and the staff, but the truth is it’s a very small, rural school where I didn’t have a lot of representation for colleges I was looking at or a lot of these extracurriculars I wanted to do, so putting myself out there was the most important thing I could do in high school.”
With her accomplished high school career now coming to an end, Lopez-Ramirez is headed to the Windy City to attend the University of Chicago, where she will study public policy and environment, geography and urbanization. She said she may also study law, and her hope is to go into a line of work that allows her to make a positive impact on communities like hers.
“I think knowing the law and being able to engage with the law is a really needed skill all around and something I think I would be good at,” she said. “I see it as kind of like the spelling bees, I guess, where it’s something that would be a unique ability I could have that I could share with other people. That's what’s drawn me to it so far. I definitely just want to work with people in my future career.”
