Extra effort helps student capture Gates scholarship: "Good grades and recommendation letters are requirements, but leadership skills and work in the community are what selection committees pay close attention to, said Mary Williams, spokeswoman for the United Negro College Fund, which is an administrator of the scholarship.

'We get thousands upon thousands of applications,' Williams said. Although she could not quote a figure for 2004, a news release on the Gates Millennium Scholars Web site, www.gmsp.org, said more than 62,000 high school seniors applied in 2000.

The scholarship program was begun five years ago with $1billion from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Its mission is to give 20,000 students from low-income minority families an opportunity to go to college, Williams said."