Senior is Named Presidential Scholar

Established in 1964 by the President, this national program recognizes our nation's most distinguished seniors, inviting them to Washington, D.C. on an expenses paid trip for the National Recognition Program.

Barbara came to USN as a freshman, making the switch from Woodland Middle School. Next year she will attend Duke University, where she plans to study computer science while also preparing for medical school. ("All my family are doctors," Barbara says.) She is interested in Artificial Intelligence and machine learning and wants to explore their possibilities in medicine.

Last summer she worked in Dr. Dan Beauchamp's lab at Vanderbilt University, studying a tumor suppressor and how it affected intestinal carcinogenesis.

Presidential Scholars are allowed to choose their most inspiring teacher to accompany them on the trip, and Barbara has selected math teacher Dr. Justin Fitzpatrick. When she was a sophomore, she enrolled in his Malone Schools Online Course Advanced Abstract Math II, which offered "lots more proof-based math as opposed to computational."

Not only does Barbara love, and shine in, math and science, she is a visual artist, an accomplished pianist, and a remarkable writer. Her English teacher says, "Her creative writing project was exceptional--a carefully curated collection of poems in tight, challenging forms, with vivid image and detail."

High school head Quinton Walker says, "Barbara is most deserving of this highest academic honor. She is fiercely intellectual, extraordinarily curious, and relentlessly passionate about myriad academic pursuits. Each of us at USN is fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend time with her -- our classrooms and our own teaching crafts are better by virtue of her presence. We look forward to all of what she continues to do as her talents mature at Duke University and beyond."