Tag: Best Brightest
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Best & Brightest: Merging resilience and kindness to have an impact
Resilience. Curiosity. Kindness. Those are just a few of the points on Quinn Pascual’s compass for life, and so far, they’ve navigated the Discovery Canyon Campus High School senior through life’s peaks and valleys. The first valley came when Pascual was only 2 years old. What started as a bout of seizures, high fevers, and a bizarre skin rash turned into a diagnosis of Kawasaki disease, a rare condition that can cause…
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Best & Brightest: A passion for computer science and art
Like many of the Best and the Brightest Winners, Sophie Zhou is an exceptional student. She anticipates attending Stanford this fall. Her twin passions for Art and Computer Science have carved out for her an art-activist niche that she can set her life in. She is also a member of the non-profit organization All In AI, which runs summer camps to teach underrepresented students about machine learning. Sophie is motivated by working with these students…
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Best & Brightest: Dynamic leader values duty and service
The college counselor at Thomas Doherty High School recommended Sophia Melpakam for the Best and the Brightest award with the highest of praise. “I have worked with thousands of students, and Sophia is at the top of them all. I truly cannot express in words how amazing she is.” Sophia is the Doherty 2026 valedictorian and student body president. She also…
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Best & Brightest: Looking to the stars with compassion and commitment
There’s no doubt that Madeline Sprinz is a star, and one day she plans to help the rest of humanity explore them. The Rampart High School senior’s whip-smart intellect and can-do attitude are propelling her to follow her passion for aerospace engineering this fall at Colorado School of Mines in Golden. Her first exposure to…
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Best & Brightest: A combination of academics and ‘pay-it-forward’ mindset
Best and Brightest Winner Trent Gregg “demonstrates exceptional leadership and commitment.” These are the words of his student council sponsor at Peyton High School. Trent currently carries a G.P.A of 4.25. As the President of the National Honor Society and Student Council, Trent is recognized as a leader. Whether on the basketball court, implementing clothing drives, mentoring students, or during his classes,…
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Best & Brightest: A passion for global policy and social issues
Cheyenne Mountain High School senior Evangeline McFarland once made a mistake. The sort of mistake that could derail her entire high school golf career. She’d miscounted her strokes, marking one less on the 18th hole. Her best-ever round, a milestone she’d been working toward for years, was wrong. “I felt like I had let down every person who worked with me…
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Best & Brightest: Loss fuels change and a sense of purpose
Naomi Kruse is doing the work of The Lorax. Earning recognition as one of The Gazette’s Best and Brightest, the homeschooled 17-year-old continues to “speak for the trees” as the iconic Dr. Seuss character did. But Kruse has done a lot more than simply speak. In her relentless drive to help the charred forests of the American West heal from wildfires, she has researched ecology, planted new life, and taught others to do the same. It might come…
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Best & Brightest: Emphasis on service and connecting communities
As a high school sophomore, Greta Kelley learned the true meaning of the popular song lyrics: “Even when I lose, I’m winning.” When she lost the Student Council election that year, she felt she was losing her position as a school leader. “But in reality”, says Kelley, “that loss gave me time to listen…to ask questions that no…
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Best & Brightest: Merging physics and philosophy
In the fall, Koen Beaver will begin studying at Columbia University in New York City, majoring in physics, and possibly minoring in philosophy. He relishes researching and exploring the similarities and differences between these two disciplines, both of which are concerned with fundamental questions about the universe. Beaver stresses his personal philosophy to refrain from being one-dimensional,…