Presidential scholars honored June 23-27

Presidential scholars were honored for their accomplishments in Washington D.C., from June 23-27. On May 2, 2007, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced the selection of 141 outstanding high school seniors as the 2007 Presidential Scholars. The students have demonstrated outstanding academic achievement, artistic excellence, leadership, citizenship, service, and contribution to school and community.

The 141 Presidential Scholars include one young man and one young woman from each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and from U.S. families living abroad, as well as 15 chosen at-large and 20 Presidential Scholars in the Arts. A 27-member Commission on Presidential Scholars appointed by President Bush selected the scholars based on their academic success, artistic excellence, essays, school evaluations and transcripts, as well as evidence of community service, leadership, and demonstrated commitment to high ideals. Of the 141 scholars, Chinese Americans who received the honor are listed below in alphabetical order by state:

AL--Montgomery--Lova L. Sun, Loveless Academic Magnet Program High School
AZ--Gilbert--Lu Wang, Mesquite High School
CA--Palo Alto--Caterina Yuan, Palo Alto Senior High School
CO--Ft. Collins--Qiancheng Sun, Poudre High School
FL--Tampa--Charles M. Zhu, C. Leon King High School
KY--Bardstown--David T. Tao, The McCallie School
KY--Louisville--Yi Cai, duPont Manual Magnet High School
LA--New Orleans--Patricia Tsai, Benjamin Franklin Senior High School
MD--Potomac--Kathleen J. Jee, Montgomery Blair High School
MN--Plymouth--Heidi H. Liu, The Blake School
MO--Columbia--Brooks S. Yang, Columbia-Rock Bridge Senior High School
NM--Los Alamos--Lawrence Z. Cai, Los Alamos High School
NC--Chapel Hill--Michelle A. Tsang, East Chapel Hill High School
OH--Solon--Luci Yang, Solon High School
OK--Edmond--Brooke T. Luo, Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics
RI--Barrington--Michael Q. Ding, Barrington High School
TX--Plano--Amelia H. Lin, Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science
UT--Salt Lake City--Kevin C. Ni, Skyline High School

The Presidential Scholars program was created in 1964 to honor academic achievement. It was expanded in 1979 to recognize students who demonstrate exceptional talent in the visual, literary and performing arts.

For the past 43 years, this prestigious program has honored more than 5,000 of the nation's top-performing students. Of the three million students expected to graduate from high school this year, more than 2,700 candidates qualified on the basis of outstanding performance on the College Board SAT and ACT exams, or by nomination through the nationwide Young Arts talent search conducted by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts.