Finley, Debate standout, garners full ride to Brown

It was a studious afternoon in the speech and debate room when Tre Finley, a measured, soft-spoken Columbia Falls senior, refreshed the QuestBridge application website to discover he had been accepted to Brown University— with a four-year, full-ride scholarship.

“It was very exciting and surreal to experience,” said Finley. “I didn’t think I would get accepted at all.”

Which is partly why Finley, a first-generation college student, is just the type of candidate the scholarship program QuestBridge is hoping to reach.

Finley, a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, was born in Ronan and raised on the reservation until he entered the foster care system at the age of four. Shortly after, Finley and his younger sister moved to Columbia Falls under the care of his cousin Karrie and her husband Javier Mendoza.

It wasn’t until junior high that Finley, ever-curious and inquisitive, was introduced to what for him became a life-altering activity: speech and debate.

“I think that the most important thing to know about me is that I really like debate,” says Finley. “I’ve been doing it all four years of high school, and I think it’s really helped me succeed in the places I’ve been successful in.”

The academic extracurricular helped Finley develop his writing, his speaking and just how to present himself in general, he said. It also gave him an outlet where he could research and explore the myriad of topics he was interested in.

“I just kind of like to learn about what’s going on, and just seeing how everything interacts,” he said.

In particular, Finley is intrigued by environmental issues and the role public policy has in influencing them, an interest he says is largely shaped by his Native American heritage and the values of his ancestors.

“I feel like it should be important to everyone that our environment is good for us, because without it we’re not going to get very far,” said Finley. “I think it’s just a core human aspect that we all value the environment in some ways, we enjoy activities that involve the environment and other things, so I think it’s just trying to get back to a level where the environment’s still great for us to use.”

Finley plans on pursuing a law degree after his undergraduate, and hopes a Brown education will give him a skillset he can eventually bring back to the reservation.

“That’s my main interest, is just trying to build a broader knowledge on the environment and public policy,” says Finley. “I feel like I do want to come back to Montana and probably help my tribe in some way, with the environment and law.”

A goal which QuestBridge made a little less complicated.

Established in 1994, the QuestBridge scholarship program, partnering with over 40 of the nation’s most prestigious institutions, seeks to provide high-achieving, low-income students with an elite education.

The organization cites that there are nearly 30,000 talented, academically qualified low-income high schoolers across the nation, but that the majority don’t apply to even one selective college, often based on assumptions it’s unaffordable or somehow beyond their realm of possibilities.

While many of the country’s top institutions have substantial tuitions —Brown University’s is upwards of $80,000 per year— it’s also true that most strive to recruit the largely untapped pool of talented low-income students by offering full-need scholarship packages.

QuestBridge’s mission is to not only match the two, but to mentor students throughout their education, from acceptance letter to graduation and even their first job, providing guidance to individuals whose entire support system may be unfamiliar with the realm of postsecondary education. For Finley, who along with his sister will be the first in his family to attend college, the fit was perfect.

“Just to know that I had that safety [of the scholarship] it’s like, ‘OK, I have my future planned out, now I just have to get there,” he said.