Every year we sort through mounds of data, from mean SAT scores to four-year graduation rates, to compile our Public High School Chart. Needless to say, we manage to feel proud of our county’s youth every single time.
When it was announced last week that three Westchester high school seniors were among 40 students chosen to be Regeneron Science Talent Search Finalists, a position that could earn them $40,000 to $250,000 for their personal research projects, our pride shot through the roof.
Jonathan H. Chung, from Hendrick Hudson High School; Blake Hord, of Dobbs Ferry High School; and Audrey Saltzman, of Byram Hills, were selected based on the “scientific rigor and world-changing potential of their research projects,” investigating subjects like microbiology and astronomy.
Their next step will be heading to Washington D.C. in March to compete for more than $1.8 million in awards to be distributed amongst the top 10 winners. Those winners will be announced at a formal awards gala at the National Building Museum on March 14.
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Audrey Saltzman, of Byram Hills High School; Jonathan H. Chung, of Hendrick Hudson High School; and Blake Hord, of Dobbs Ferry High SchoolOur Westchester finalists were handpicked from a pool of 300 semi-finalists, and 1,700 entrants total, spanning 34 schools in 17 states. Regeneron’s president and chief scientific officer, George Yancopoulos, wrote in a blog post on Medium that these students “represent the nation’s brightest young scientific minds.”
“Keep a close eye on them: before you know it, they’ll be publishing groundbreaking research, curing diseases and making new discoveries about our world and our place in the universe,” he continued.
We’d love to wish our three budding scientists luck, but with words like that being said about them, they probably don’t need it.
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