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Their scholastic prowess takes a backseat to their amazing talent and impeccable drive. Their gluttonous proportions of skills and mental wherewithal are exaggerated by the ease with which they excel. These stories of outstanding high school seniors are best consumed with proper context and perspective: They are not normal, but exceptional.
The subsequent introductions are not intended for those who are intimidated by brilliance or can’t handle being inferior in any way to teenagers. If necessary, consult your therapist or life coach before reading about these students.
Side effects may include envy, excessive use of the word wow, immediate self-evaluation and the “if only I …” complex. In the most serious cases, a sudden desire to drop everything and chase your dream can occur.
Proceed with caution.
CHRIS LITTLE: The Athlete
HIGH SCHOOL: Castlemont Leadership Preparatory School
AGE: 18
NEXT SCHOOL: UC Berkeley
INTENDED MAJOR: Business marketing
FYI: Rivals.com, a Web site that tracks top-level recruits, has Chris ranked No. 42 on its list of the nation’s top 100 outside linebackers. He will play safety at Cal.
Chris Little is a jock, and he’s got more than a purple-and-white varsity jacket from Castlemont as proof.
He’s got a 6-foot-3, 215-pound machine of a body. He’s got an abundance of statistics, trophies and records from his career in football and basketball. He’s got the recognition of being one of the top-ranked prep defensive players in the country.
But Chris has gotten something else, something the stereotypical jock doesn’t: brains.
“It kind of upsets me when people assume I’m just a dumb jock,” he says. “I know that in order to be successful, you have to be educated.”
There are countless student athletes who excel scholastically. But for such an elite athlete to have such academic dexterity is rare, especially in the high-pressure realm of football. Maintaining focus on education is significantly harder when you’ve been treated like a star athlete since before puberty. Slacking off in the classroom is significantly easier when you attend a school reputed for its under-performance.
Yet Little’s transcript has 4.14 and a 4.35 GPAs for his last two semesters, thanks to his success in Advanced Placement courses. As a result of his brains and brawn, he will be playing football on scholarship at Cal, one of the world’s most respected academic institutions featuring one of
the nation’s best football programs.
“He was an easy recruit,” says James Barnes, Castlemont’s football coach. “He had the GPA. He had the SAT scores. He had the [game] film. Coming from 82nd [Avenue] and International [Boulevard], it tells you how much effort he’s put in.”
TYLER HE: The Debater
HIGH SCHOOL: The College Preparatory School
AGE: 16
NEXT SCHOOL: Stanford
INTENDED MAJOR: “Still very much undecided”
FYI: Tyler received an internship with the William J. Clinton Foundation and UNAIDS, which sent him to China last summer to assist and conduct research on AIDS. He made a presentation on the methodology of fighting the epidemic.
The mildness of his tone and the slightness of his build are a bit misleading. Tyler He’s aura is mellow, but his resolve is bold.
Don’t believe it? Challenge him on public health assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa. Better yet, you can pick the discourse and even the side you’d prefer to argue.
“You look at his face, he’s this mild-mannered calm kid,” says Martin Bonilla, Tyler’s college counselor at CPS. “Then, we sit in these assemblies and our debate coach gets up and tells us Tyler has won some national competition. It’s accolade after accolade.”
Tyler doesn’t do rousing speeches or emphatic deliveries, such as those in The Great Debaters. But, using stellar technique and diligent research, he gets his point across successfully. He took first place in national competitions at the University of Southern California and Cal State Long Beach and second place at Wake Forest University.
Debating turned Tyler into an exceptional researcher, which he says helps him in almost every aspect of his education. As a result, he’s boasting a 3.89 GPA, a 2310 SAT score and an early acceptance into Stanford.
His debate success is uncanny considering Mandarin, not English, is his native tongue. Plus, Tyler’s a math wiz of sorts (so good that College Prep had to create a class advanced enough for him and a few others), which doesn’t usually translate into stage presence.
To say he stepped out of his shell is like saying Halle Berry is pretty.
“I tried debate for my interest in poetry and philosophy and trying to discover the artistic side of life,” Tyler says. “It’s definitely nerve-racking. There’s always a lot of pressure. Everyone wants to try to find a way to trip you up on your argument. … It’s all about self-confidence, ultimately. There’s not much else to rely on besides the fact that you’re right and believing that you and your partner can get it done.”
PAUL ROMER: The Thinker
HIGH SCHOOL: The College Preparatory School
AGE: 18
NEXT SCHOOL: Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, Dartmouth, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Stanford, UCB, UCLA, Washington University
INTENDED MAJOR: Some sort of science, likely chemistry or biology
FYI: Paul teaches junior high school students from the Oakland Unified School District through the Partners Program, a summer enrichment program for middle-schoolers.
Paul Romer has taken up juggling. But it’s not what you think.
He’s not killing time, idly tossing red balls, imitating circus clowns. He’s turned the seemingly simple act into a study of angles, probability
and patterns.
“His ability to look at the most abstract material is just amazing,” says Jack Coakley, Paul’s physics teacher. “He gets this look. It’s a look of ‘I’m going to solve this.’ Then there’s a smile on his face, which means he’s figured it out.”
School is not about grades for Paul—though he has a transcript of all As, a near-impossible feat at College Prep. School is about the fulfilling process of learning, pacifying his never-ending curiosity. He wants to know the intricate differences of sweet potatoes and yams. He wants to understand atoms and molecules and how they interact.
He wants to conquer the Rubik’s cube.
“I’ve gotten close,” he says. “It is frustrating not to be able to figure it out.”
What wasn’t frustrating for Paul, surprisingly, was coming up under his sister, Katherine Romer—one of the few people who can match wits with Paul. Katherine was a standout student at College Prep. Now she’s at MIT.
Big sis was much more an example than a rival.
“My sister was also ridiculously dedicated to everything,” he says. “She’d get these great grades and great scores, but it wasn’t something she was declaring on the rooftops. It has made high expectations, but my sister’s very helpful. We’re fundamentally like each other, and we’re good friends.”
SEAN EBERHARD: The Mathematician
HIGH SCHOOL: Bishop O’Dowd High School
AGE: 18
NEXT SCHOOL: University of Cambridge, England
INTENDED MAJOR: Mathematics
FYI: Sean plays the guitar and the piano. He also recently picked up the card game bridge, which he enjoys with his parents.
All you need to know about Sean Eberhard’s brain power is that he will be attending the prestigious University of Cambridge in England this fall, the same school where world-renowned cosmologist and theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking is a professor and where Charles Darwin and Sir Isaac Newton are alumni.
But wait. Just before you typecast him as some pocket protector–wearing math geek, know this.
“My girlfriend Sarah Jo’s a total fox,” he proclaims.
Sean is kind of out of this world. Think Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting. He took pre-calculus as a freshman and AP calculus as a sophomore. He is concurrently attending UC Berkeley, taking such brain-busting math classes as numerical analysis and problem solving. He’s also doing independent study with O’Dowd’s physics teacher Frank Rooney. The two are working on theoretical engineering in non-linear elasticity.
Still, don’t let his 4.17 overall GPA and 2220 SAT score fool you. Sean is a regular dude, cool even.
“Math is just the way I think,” Sean says. “I’m a normal guy. I’m not the typical [smart] kid who gets perfect As on everything. If I took an art class, I’d probably fail,” he says. “P.E. was difficult for me. I don’t like running.”
EMILY FRIEDBERG: The Doctor
HIGH SCHOOL: Bishop O’Dowd High School
AGE: 18
NEXT SCHOOL: University of California, Los Angeles, or USC
INTENDED MAJOR: Global studies at UCLA or undeclared at USC
FYI: She swam and played water polo for the Dragons and currently runs track. She has also taken up Muay Thai kickboxing and electric bass guitar.
Don’t get Emily Friedberg going on the issue of health care.
“It’s the No. 1 issue that I have,” she says—better yet, rants. “I have a lot of issues with how our government is run, but health care is No. 1. … Pharmaceutical companies, instead of making the medicine people need, they make the medicine people want—antidepressants and stuff like that.”
You’ll have to excuse Emily’s passion. She wants to be a doctor for much more than the financial security. Her motive is philanthropic. She’s going to medical school after undergraduate school—she has an early acceptance from USC—and then she’s going to open up a private practice, hoping to alleviate bureaucracy. She wouldn’t mind working in France, where the healthcare system is more inclusive.
Though she hasn’t decided which area in the field of medicine to pursue, she’s well on her way to a career in medicine. A perfect example of her diligence came last semester, when she posted a 4.33 GPA (including AP classes) despite having an early acceptance to USC already in hand.
Medicine is the perfect appeasement for her inquisitive and charitable spirit.
“I’ve always loved science,” she says. “I like being challenged. I’m a really curious person. I always want to know how things work. But most of all, when I thought about my future, I thought about how I could help people most.”
HANNAH KOPP-YATES: The Artist
HIGH SCHOOL: The College Preparatory School
AGE: 17
NEXT SCHOOL: Applied to Stanford University, Yale University, Vassar College and Smith College
INTENDED MAJOR: Global studies, psychology or environmental science
FYI: Hannah co-founded Future Builders, a group of teens who put on benefit concerts to raise awareness and funds for humanitarian causes. So far, they’ve raised money to build schools in Somalia and Sudan, to help South American farmers learn new practices and to assist those in Third World countries who need business loans.
One random, regular day at The College Preparatory School, students were making announcements about upcoming events—fundraisers, club meetings—typical high school stuff. Then Hannah Kopps-Yates grabbed
the mic.
“She got up there,” recalls Alison Doernberg, associate director of college counseling, “and said, ‘It’s free hug day. Anyone who needs a hug, come see me.’ She has a way of moving through the world with such openness, thoughtfulness and generosity.”
Hannah has the kind of compassionate spirit and the complexity of thinking that would make a hippie proud. She hones and expresses her spiritual connection with the world through the performing of her rare artistic talents.
She has traveled to Scotland for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as the lead character in the school production of Ash. She’s grown organic food and prepares meals for local shelters as president of the Eco Club. She’s submitted poetry and takes photographs as editor of the school’s literary magazine.
She’s fluent in German and French. She dances. She acts. She writes. Even her rambling is poetic.
“[I’m inspired by] almost everyone in a way,” says Hannah, who has studied the Indian dance style Odissi for 12 years. “I’m inspired by the big people, like Ghandi or Jane Goodall. But I’m more inspired by the really small people, like the homeless man on my street who smiles at me every morning.”
ALEJO KRAUS-POLK: The Environmentalist
HIGH SCHOOL: Head-Royce School
AGE: 17
NEXT SCHOOL: Applied to Dartmouth College, Yale, Brown University, Oberlin College
INTENDED MAJOR: Business marketing
FYI: Alejo did an apprenticeship where he learned the ins and outs of urban beekeeping. He still works with the American Valley–based beekeeper, and the two traverse the Bay Area tending hives and harvesting honey.
Learning the art of spreading the word without preaching took some time. But Alejo Kraus-Polk is pulling it off. He has realized that personal relationships, not platforms, are most effective, and information is easier to swallow than condemnation.
“There are a lot of kids who were annoyed with me—and probably still are—because I tried to get rid of water bottles at school,” he says.
You’ll have to excuse Alejo. His childhood was highlighted by making regular trips to organic farms and trekking to the mountains. He has an intimate relationship with the environment. Needless to say, he’s concerned.
Fortunately for Earth, Alejo is also an intellectual—which his 3.35 GPA (not counting AP courses) and 2020 SAT score don’t begin to encapsulate. And he’s already begun trying to promote change. He has worked on educational and cleanup projects for the local park system. He volunteered for a service project in Panama. A recreational painter and photographer, he’s been studying up on eco-friendly design and construction.
He already has a theory for saving the environment.
“It’s going to start with education and also integration,” he says. “Getting other groups involved, bring together the social and the environmental. That’s where the solution lies, because they’re really related. A lot of the social problems can be linked to environmental problems—like obesity.”
CAMDEN LOUIE: The Singer
HIGH SCHOOL: Head-Royce School
AGE: 18
NEXT SCHOOL: Wellesley College
INTENDED MAJOR: Music and international relations
FYI: Camden is a Disney fanatic. She cultivated her voice by singing along to the likes of Little Mermaid, Cinderella and Aladdin. She been a pianist since she was 4, and she plays the viola for her school’s orchestra.
You can’t miss Camden Louie. If you don’t see her—that warm, metallic smile decorating her petite frame even better than her fashionably wholesome attire—then you’re sure to hear her. She’s the one with melody softly seeping from her lips.
In class. In her room. In the car. On stage. She’s always singing.
“My teacher calls me a walking iPod,” she says. “Sometimes I’ll have a choir piece in my head. Sometimes it’s something I heard on the radio. ‘Hey There Delilah’ gets stuck in my head all the time.”
Camden is a special student, as her early acceptance to Wellesley College, her first choice, might suggest. Her credentials go beyond her 3.65 GPA, which doesn’t factor in her Advanced Placement courses. Co-president of the Asia Club, she helped the faculty write the report to submit to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges for accreditation. Her science project in biology took first place at the 2007 San Francisco Bay Area Science Fair and fourth place at the California State Science Fair.
But singing is her love, her life. She will tell you she’s “not that great of a singer.” But her résumé betrays her. Camden has been singing classical music with the esteemed Piedmont Choir for eight years. She has performed internationally on several occasions, visiting Mexico, Cuba, Italy, Slovenia, Finland, Latvia, China, Hungary and the Czech Republic. She was one of about 180 students selected to attend the prestigious National High School Music Institute at Northwestern University, a five-week mini-semester that introduces high-schoolers to life as collegiate music students.
Camden says she doesn’t sing to hear her own voice, but because of the way it can impact those who do. She adopted this perspective in the sixth grade, her first year touring with the Piedmont Choir. The choir went to Cuba to perform for Fidel Castro. The day after the show, while perusing an open market for lunch, she was approached by a man. She can still see his full, salt-and-pepper beard, his leathery skin, the appreciation in his eyes.
“He stopped me and said, ‘I saw you on television last night! You were the girl singing in the front row at the concert. I watched you the whole time because you had such a big smile on your face. You really made the concert come alive for me!’ I still remember that like it was yesterday. … Performing for me is really about seeing the effect it has on the audience, seeing the audience members’ reaction to the beauty of the piece, the message of the song.”
No wonder she’s always singing.
JAYA DARKE: The Entrepreneur
HIGH SCHOOL: McClymonds BEST High School
AGE: 18
NEXT SCHOOL: UC Berkeley or UC Davis
INTENDED MAJOR: Business
FYI: Jaya is a reality show junkie and a diehard fan of R&B star Usher.
During a project in McClymond’s Global Entrepreneurship Program, students were asked to get in groups and create a business plan for a mock company. This assignment was right up Jaya Darke’s alley.
Then a freshman, she led a group that took first place for its clothing line, which featured casual wear for women (Sweet 7), men (Tough 7) and kids (Mini 7).
“I want to learn [business] so I can survive,” she says. “I want to be self-sufficient. If I’m self-sufficient, then I’ll be rich.”
You don’t have to look far for the origins of Jaya’s business savvy. Her father, who owns a DVD replication company, has imparted to her all kinds of wisdom. She, along with her mom, even helps out with her father’s affairs.
The example of hard work and the endless lessons are paying dividends in her academic performance. She has a 3.86 GPA, 4.05 when factoring in her AP courses. She already has been accepted to UC Davis.
Even at school, Jaya is developing her entrepreneurship. She assists the culinary arts teacher in catering parties. She’s helping put together the yearbook; she’s the publicist for the Key Club, and she’s taken business classes from Merritt College professors.
Jaya is also taking a construction class in the morning as part of the Oakland Unified School District’s School-to-Career Program. She makes $8 an hour for the class, in which she learns skills such as carpentry and performs odd jobs around campus such as painting and building a security booth.
Don’t think for a second that Jaya is wasting her $40 per week.
“I know the value of a dollar,” she says. “My parents taught me well.”
SHANITA TALTON: The Activist
HIGH SCHOOL: Castlemont Business Information Technology School
AGE: 18
NEXT SCHOOL: Applied to UC Berkeley, UC Davis, USC, Stanford, Saint Mary’s College of California, University of San Francisco
INTENDED MAJOR: Sociology and ethnic studies
FYI: Shanita wrote and appeared in a Comcast PSA about youth and domestic violence. She also composed and recorded motivational songs for youth through Digital Underground Storytelling for Youth.
You won’t see Shanita Talton on a soapbox, proclaiming her greatness for overcoming a traumatic childhood. She refuses to be defined by the obstacles she’s hurdled.
Instead, she prefers praise for not knowing what it’s like not to be on the honor roll, not because she survived a substance-abusing mother who’s currently succumbing to AIDS. She’ll take recognition for her community service, not for never having been to jail.
And when she gets the acceptance letter she so covets from UC Berkeley, she’ll permit applause for that, not for avoiding teen pregnancy or drug addiction.
If you want to hear Shanita’s story straight from her mouth, you’ll have to take a seat in the audience at the Ossian E. Carr Boys & Girls Club in East Oakland, where she teaches dance and performs for the kids in talent shows; or at Teens on Target, where she puts on rallies and teaches students about violence prevention.
Her amazing story of triumph is now strictly used to uplift her community.
“I know there are a lot of youth out there who face the family struggles that I have,” she says, “and there are not a lot of people my age that have the confidence to speak about their situation.”
Shanita is more passionate about being hands-on in the community than she is about learning. A self-described “overachiever” and “teacher’s pet,” she says she learns with a goal to be better equipped to help.
She has earned plenty of praise for her community service: She was acknowledged by Congresswoman Barbara Lee, recognized by the California State Senate and honored by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.
What motivates her into such action? Stacie (12), Shaunice (11), Donald (7) and Morgan (5)—her half-siblings.
Shanita spent her adolescence protecting them from the ills of the community that spilled into their home. Now she’s trying to change the community for them. Now that’s something to be defined by.
“Growing up with them, taking care of them, that gave me that mother-like instinct,” she says. “God gave me that to bear for them.”
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