BC News

Accomplished BCHS student, musician, and mentor adds a new distinction — U.S. Presidential Scholar nominee
Release Date: March 15, 2010

BCHS Senior Ruosi Zhou is an AP Scholar, an accomplished clarinetist, a leader among her peers, a community volunteer and bilingual. She's also very modest about these accomplishments and more, including recently being named one of only 3,000 students in the country being nominated for consideration as a 2010 Presidential Scholar.

Being named a U.S. Presidential Scholar – or just considered for it – is one of the most prestigious accolades a high school student in the United States can aspire to.

"I was really surprised," Zhou said. "I feel honored just being considered. I'm keeping my fingers crossed."

The Presidential Scholars Program was initiated in 1964 by the executive order of President Lyndon B. Johnson as a means to not only recognize the nation’s most distinguished scholars, but also to provide an experience that helps shape the country’s future leaders. The scholars travel to Washington D.C. in June as guests of the program for a week of seminars, lectures and workshops with some of the best minds in the fields of government, education, science and the arts. The week culminates in a White House-sponsored event at which the Scholars are awarded the Presidential Medallion.

The detailed application for the U.S. Presidential Scholars program included six essay questions on a variety of topics.

Up to 141 students from across the country are typically chosen out of a few thousand nominees for the program.

Zhou is an honor roll student, a National Merit Scholarship finalist, has been named an AP Scholar of Distinction, earned the Dartmouth College Book Award last year, and has won writing competitions in both French and Mandarin Chinese. In addition, she is a member of the BCHS wind ensemble, the pit orchestra during last year's production of "The Sound of Music", and participated in the New York Area All State Band.

Both at BCHS and within the greater community, Zhou is a leader and mentor and is generous with her time and her talents. A former co-president of the Albany-based Chinese Youth Group, she has helped coordinate outreach to the local food bank, fundraising efforts in the wake of the devastating earthquake in Chin's Sichuan Province, and a Chinese New Year celebration in Albany. Zhou has also volunteered at St. Peter's Hospital and has participated in peer tutoring at BCHS.

Zhou also played field hockey at BCHS and participated on Badminton Club.

All of this is in addition to one of the most rigorous academic programs you can find at BCHS, according to her counselor, Lisa Carr.

"Ruosi is a great role model," Carr said. "She's a scholar, a musician, an athlete, a volunteer, a mentor – she's a Renaissance woman. ...It's not just the test scores. it's the whole picture."

Zhou has either been accepted to or is awaiting word from several Ivy League schools and some of the other finest colleges and universities in the country. She said she plans to study either economics or biology.

 

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