Valley student honored by Major League Baseball
Apr 28, 2014, 5:00 AM | Updated: 5:00 am
PHOENIX — A Valley high school student is being honored by Major League Baseball.
Michael Andaloro is a ninth grader at Veritas Preparatory Academy in Phoenix and he was selected as one of two grand prize winner’s for the MLB’s 2014 Breaking Barriers essay contest.
Nearly 19,000 students from across the country submitted essays. Sharon Robinson, the daughter of hall-of-fame baseball player Jackie Robinson and an educational consultant for the MLB said Andaloro was chosen because of the unique challenges he’s overcome as a deaf student.
“The doctors thought he would never speak and his parents sent him to an oral-deaf school and (in) six months, he had closed a three-year (educational) gap,” she said. “I can’t wait to meet him.”
Robinson is meeting with Andaloro on Monday and will present him with the prizes he earned as a grand prize winner. Some of those include a new laptop, books and t-shirts for his entire class and a meet-and-greet with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Most importantly though, Robinson said he’ll get the opportunity to be honored at one of sport’s biggest events.
“Probably game three or four of the World Series, he’ll be honored before the World Series crowd,” she said.
This is the 18th year the MLB has named a scholastic winner for its Breaking Barriers contest.
