2007 Taiwanese American Community Scholarship Award Recipients

 

Mr. Allen Yang

Winston Churchill High School

Miss Sheena M Austria

Winston Churchill High School

Miss Mindy Lin

Thomas S. Wootton High School

Mr. Yujie Yang

Thomas S. Wootton High School

Miss Fannie Jou

Richard Montgomery High School

Miss Kelly James

Oakton High School

Mr. Yuan Zhou

Robinson Secondary High School

Miss Elizabeth Walker

Westfield High School

Mr. Jake R Bartlett

Westfield High School

Mr. Mikw Tzeng

Winston Churchill High School

 

(In alphabetic order)

Sheena Austria

Sheena Austria is extremely grateful that she was chosen to receive the Taiwanese American Community Scholarship Award! Sheena is a seventeen-year-old senior at Winston Churchill High School. She was blessed with the opportunities to participate in the National Honor Society and Science National Honor Society at her school. Outside of school, Sheena is a member of her high school show choir called Showstoppers, was a back-up singer and dancer in Blast from the Past, and was a featured dancer in other school musicals. However, the activities Sheena values most are her community service activities. Sheena helped coordinate and lead a summer camp and prom at Summerville Assisted Living, was a volunteer in the pediatric department at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, and is currently a pre-school Sunday school teacher at the Philippine International Bible Church in Olney, Maryland. She will be attending Montgomery College as a Montgomery Scholar in the fall. Sheena would like to thank her loving parents, friends, and Mrs. Zimmerman for their unconditional love and support, and the Taiwanese American Community Scholarship Award Committee for giving her this amazing award.

 

Jake Bartlett

Jake Bartlett of Westfield High School is a highly accomplished student and has dedicated his time to service in the community and in the life of his school. He has served as the Class of 2007 President for four years, worked on the school newspaper for four years, and has been sports editor of the Watchdog for two years. His journalism career enabled him to become a staff writer for Gameday Magazine, a periodical for Northern Virginia high school sports. Additionally, he has been active in the National, English, and Spanish Honor Societies.

 

His community service endeavors include countless hours for his church as a confirmation youth leader, campaigning for former Senator George Allen, and holiday work for local charities. Bartlett has been successful in balancing two jobs, numerous extracurricular activities, and a rigorous academic load during his high school years. In the fall, Bartlett will attend the University of Virginia where he plans to major in accounting. Bartlett hopes to start his own company that will one day provide financial freedom and allow him to remain very involved in service to others. 

 

 

Kelly James

Kelly James is a highly ambitious young woman who loves to travel, play soccer, and above all else, loves to help people. She did work with providing food for the homeless and in second grade; she started a collection for a disaster relief fund that took place during her second grade year. Her greatest fundraiser was a product of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. On that day, in 2001, Kelly James decided that watching CNN footage of the planes was not a beneficial use of her time. She set up a bake sale and donated the proceeds to the American Red Cross to benefit the victims and their families. Since 2001, Kelly has funded the same bake sale every year, always donating the proceeds to the American Red Cross.

 

Kelly hopes to be able to continue to help more people as she embarks on her college life at George Mason University this coming fall. Once there, she hopes to study physical therapy and Italian. 

 

Fannie Jou
Fannie Jou is a senior in the International Baccalaureate Program at Richard Montgomery High School, where she is the arts editor of the school newspaper, The Tide, as well as the school’s renowned literary magazine, Fine Lines. She is a member of the National Honor Society as well as a founding member of Helping Hands, a club involved in creating artwork for community causes. Outside of school, Fannie is the co-captain of a local soccer team she has been a part of for over 12 years. She has also been involved in lessons and performances for both piano and ballet for just as long, and has performed as part of the Silver Star Chinese Dance Company for the past three years. Fannie devotes her summers to volunteer work, particularly in working behind the scenes with the Smithsonian Institution in DC at the National Herbarium as well as the Hirshhorn Museum of Modern Art. She also has done work with the Chinese Immersion Program at the MCPS Board of Education and is a graduating senior at the Washington School of Chinese Language and Culture.

 

Mindy Lin

Mindy is simultaneously a hard-working, silly, ambitious, and fun-loving girl. She loves to go shopping, eat great food, watch movies, and go to the pool with her friends, but when the time comes to buckle down, she is a focused student, a co-captain of my high school’s Varsity tennis team, a violist for several orchestras in Maryland, an avid dancer, and a leader in several community service organizations. As an officer of Thomas S. Wootton High School’s National Honor Society and Science National Honor Society and a committed volunteer at tutoring programs in and outside of school, much of her free time is devoted to helping and teaching others. Last summer, she was a full-time intern at the National Institutes of Health, a unique and valuable laboratory experience that she will never forget. She looks forward to spending this coming summer making memories with friends and family, and she is especially excited to be headed off to Princeton University this fall as a college freshman. She said, “Much of my success in this first chapter of my life must be credited to the loving guidance and wisdom of my mom, dad, and my older sister, Yoming.”

 

Elizabeth Walker

 

Elizabeth Walker is a senior at Westfield High School.  Elizabeth participates in various church activities including church choir and a yearly mission trip to Tennessee.  She has also been a youth leader for her church's confirmation for several years.  She has been a varsity member of the Track and Field team for four years and is currently captain.  She is a member of Math, Science, Spanish and National Honor Societies.  Elizabeth will graduate with Summa Cum Laude honors.  Next year she will be attending the College of Engineering at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.

Allen Yang

 

Allen Yang is currently a senior at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, Maryland.  Aside from learning, his interests include reading, journalism, music and volleyball.  He is Managing Editor of Young D.C., the independent Washington D.C. metropolitan area newspaper managed by high school students for the local teenage population.  He is also President of the Math Team, Mock Trial Team, Science National Honors Society, Mu Alpha Theta, JETS Team and Medical Venturing Crew.  He plays volleyball with CCACC and also plays the piano.  If asked about his favorite academic subject, he will usually say it is math or science (particularly biology and physics), although he currently plans on going into economics.  He will be attending Harvard University in the fall.

Yujie Yang

 

Yujie was born on September 15, 1988 in the autonomous city of Chongqing, China. He is the only child in the family. His parent chose “Yujie” as his name because they wished him to be “successful.” At the age of 10, he immigrated with his parents to Greater Washington DC, USA. In Maryland, he attended Twinbrook Elementary School and Julius West Middle School.

 

During his high school career in Wootton, he participated in various extracurricular activities, including Science Technology and Research Scholar program. He is also a member of the National Honors Society, Science National Honors Society, and National Chinese Honors Society. Additionally, he participated in many community services, such as tutoring little kids in academics and fundraising for clubs, school, and helpless, homeless kids in rural place of China.

 

He became interested in Math and Science. In 10th Grade, he joined Wootton HS Chemathon Year Two Team and later won the chemistry competition. He also participated and ranked in numerous nationwide mathematics competitions, including American Math Contest, American Invitational Math Exam, and Continental Math League. Recently, he was the National Semifinalist in 2007 USA Biology Olympiad. Aside from academics, he was also interested and involved in sports, such as badminton. One of his hobbies is traveling. He loves traveling because he can learn new things on different trip to different places.

Yuan Zhou

 

Yuan Zhou was born in Shanghai, China.  He suffered from asthma from the pollution, so his family left China when he was six years old to the United States.  They moved around quite a lot between Canada and the U.S. and they settled five years ago in Fairfax, Virginia. 

 

His father is a meteorologist and works for NOAA.  They came to the D.C. area because there are two places in the U.S. for meteorologists: D.C. in the nation’s capital and Oklahoma in the heart of tornado alley.  He has lived in both places, and one of the most exciting times of his life was when three tornados were swirling around his town in Oklahoma once. 

 

His mother used to work with library science and she has a degree in computer science.  She’s a stay-at-home mom, and sometimes Yuan likes that because she can cook every night. 

 

He likes to hang out with friends and loves food.  He jogs to keep in shape and plays chess as a hobby.  He is a senior at Robinson Secondary School and will go to the University of Virginia this coming fall.

 

Mike Tzeng

 

As a senior at Winston Churchill high school, Mike has devoted much of his time toward helping his friends and his community. In school, he is the founder and captain of the Drumline, which raises school spirit and performs at school-sponsored events. He is also the president of the Civitans community service club, which is committed toward helping the less fortunate people in the world. In addition to school clubs, he is also a member of the National, Tri-M, Science, and English honor societies, the Math, Science and Technology academy, and the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts. Mike is also a talented percussionist, working his way up to the principal chair in the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestra, all-county and all-state band, and in school, as well as playing percussion for the school productions “West Side Story” and “Blast.” Mike played varsity volleyball for Churchill for two years, and loves to play ping pong and tennis in his free time.

 

He would like to thank his mom, dad, his sister Julia, and all of his friends for helping him all the way through high school. He is very excited to be heading off to the University of Pennsylvania in the fall.