ANDOVER — A year ago, Luz Lopez was an eighth-grader at Parthum Middle School in Lawrence who wanted to be a crime scene investigator.

"I changed my mind," said Lopez, 14. "That was my forensic science phase. Now there's so many other things that I'm considering. Maybe it's because I'm going to a different place."

That different place is Phillips Academy, where Lopez moves in today as a first-year student with a full four-year scholarship.

Lopez was among 70 students nationwide selected last fall as a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Young Scholar. Upon graduating high school, she will be eligible for more than $150,000 toward college and graduate school tuition through the foundation.

Lopez is Lawrence's first-ever participant in the young scholar program, which, since 2002, has given academic guidance and assistance to promising teens in families with low to moderate incomes.

"There are a lot of other people who are as intelligent as me or who worked just as hard and they don't have the same opportunities as me," said Lopez. "I feel like a lucky person."

Lopez was tutored for two years in middle school through Phillips' PALS program, which recruits high-performing sixth- and seventh-graders in Lawrence public schools.

"She's the hardest working student I've ever met," said Karen Schoenherr, a 2007 Phillips graduate and Lopez's math tutor. "She knows what she wants. She studies hard for it."

While Phillips is covering the cost of Lopez's high school tuition, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation will pay for a portion of her violin lessons, summer programs and a trip abroad, said Rebecca Stover, manager of the young scholar program.

Stover said the majority of participants in the program receive college scholarships of up to $30,000 per year from the foundation. A one-time grant of $50,000 also is available for graduate school tuition, she said.

Stover, a 1990 Phillips graduate and former PALS program tutor, said Lopez and the other young scholars were selected out of a pool of 1,200 applicants.

"There is no guarantee in this process," said Stover. "It's extremely selective and highly competitive to get an award from us."

Lopez, whose parents live on Park Street and were born in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, will the first member of her immediate family to attend college.

Lopez plays volleyball, basketball and field hockey and also is an avid reader.

She said she tries to visualize what she's reading as a play or movie in her mind.

"Books that other people will tell you are extremely boring, I'll read them and I'll like them," she said. "I'll put myself in them. When I read something, I'll relate it to my life."

Lopez, who said she wanted to attend Phillips since she was in the fifth grade, was both nervous and excited as the day to move in drew closer.

She said she doesn't know which college or university she'd like to attend, but that a career as a crime scene investigator is not out of the realm of possibility.

"Last fall I loved it," she said. "And I still do. It's not off the list completely. I think it depends on how high school goes."