The Presidential Scholarship is one of the most prestigious awards that a student can receive in the United States. This scholarship recognizes exceptional academic achievement, leadership, and community service, and is awarded to only a select few students each year. Five students who have recently earned candidacy for the Presidential Scholarship are:
- Kairavi Garde’
- Victoria Pastor
- Trevor Hodgson
- Logan Wu
- Sydney Kong
We asked the candidates to impart advice to younger students on how to achieve such a level of success. Their answers are always very insightful, and most show nods to a healthy balance of rigorous coursework and taking care of yourself:
Trevor Hodgson: Never back down from a challenge, because within every challenge is an opportunity.
Logan Wu: I think it's good to challenge yourself with hard classes, but never to the point where you don't have time to focus on things outside of school, or to simply relax. If you choose to take challenging courses, I believe there are two things that will help you succeed. Try to take time to fully understand assignments instead of just completing them out of necessity. I rarely do studying outside of the assignments that my teachers give me, and I've found that they are excellent opportunities to learn course material.
Victoria Pastor: [If you are planning to take difficult classes] find something that interests you within that class, when possible, and focus on that. For me, I'm a writer and an artist, so most things about the world and how it works have potential to be woven into things. That curiosity creates motivation. If you want to learn more, it will be easy to. In my experience, a lack of motivation is the greatest hurdle to success. The easiest (and most fun) way of overcoming that is to be really nerdy about it.