Every high school student can’t afford tutoring needed to get a top score on standardized college admission tests, so Amari Luu started a nonprofit last year to offer free online tutoring that will continue well after he goes to college in the fall.

Apex SAT has grown to serve more than 5,500 students in all 50 states and 57 countries through volunteer tutors Luu recruited from around Colorado Springs, in California and some internationally, Luu said. After graduating from Pine Creek High School in May and enrolling in either Stanford University or Harvard University, he plans to remain CEO of the company but a president who is a high school student will oversee day-to-day operations.

Apex SAT offers one-hour online tutoring as well as some in-person 2 ½-hour tutoring sessions in Colorado Springs and a three-hour summer camp that are scheduled up to twice daily during the peak spring testing season and once or twice a week during other times. He came up with the idea after a classmate scored low on the SAT test last year and worried that a low score would make it difficult to win needed scholarships to attend college.

“Some people don’t score well on standardized tests because they couldn’t afford a lot of tutoring, I didn’t believe student opportunity should be limited to what tutoring you could afford, so I started this free service,” Luu said.

As the child of a Vietnamese father and Taiwanese mother, Luu never saw himself as different from his Caucasian classmates at The Classical Academy until his elementary school teacher was offering a lesson about Japan and a friend pointed out Luu wasn’t white like his other classmates. That reminded him of the language barrier he faced when learning English – he didn’t understand idioms and figures of speech so he would often misuse them.

“For a while, I avoided speaking up. People perceived me as distant when in reality, I was afraid to misspeak and risk humiliation. Feelings of awkwardness solidified my resolve to speak more precisely and use my words to help others,” Luu said in his application for The Gazette’s Best and Brightest scholarship. “Words have more meaning more than just their dictionary definition, and I became determined to make my every word count.”

Luu overcame that issue and has spent the last five years translating various Taiwanese film projects into English, converting foreign semantics into a cross-cultural form accessible to wider audiences. That experience has improved his mastery of both English and Mandarin and he has been able to connect cultures to bridge the divide between American and Taiwanese cultures to help both learn, understand and empathize.

Luu plans to attend either Stanford University or Harvard University in the fall to major in political science to further his goal of working for a conservative or nonpartisan think tank to use his knowledge and skills to benefit society. He worked last summer as an intern and lobbyist for the Alliance for Specialty Medicine, a coalition of medical societies representing specialty physicians to develop sound health care policy.

He met former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and got shoved into a wall by one of McCarthy’s bodyguards last summer while working with the Alliance, where he discussed the many ballots during which the California congressman failed to be elected before finally winning the speakership. Luu said the prolonged voting was a part of a broader shift away from neoconservative leaders in the Republican party.

Stephanie Cornelio, Pine Creek High School’s college career counselor, said in a letter of recommendation that Luu has “learned to use his voice for others; even when he should not have had to shoulder the burden. Amari has chosen to become a kind and giving person despite experiences that could have (and quite frankly should have) hardened his heart. Amari continues to seek opportunities to learn by serving others.”