YES Appalachia - Flipbook - Page 8
A first-generation college student, Abigail was identified as a
YES Scholar at rural Blue Ridge Elementary School in Ashe
County. She attended rigorous summer programs throughout
middle and high school, including Exeter Summer, Summer
Accelerator through the North Carolina School of Science and
Mathematics (NCSSM), Yale Young Global Scholars (Politics,
Law & Economics), and the Notre Dame Summer Scholars PreCollege Program (Political Theory and the Modern World). Abby
was accepted to the North Carolina School of Science and
Mathematics online program for her final two years of high
school and was selected as a Questbridge College Prep Scholar.
Now a Yale University sophomore majoring in Environmental
Studies, she interned at Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture this
summer. This women-founded organization supports a
sustainable and equitable food system in the High Country of
North Carolina.
From rural Ashe County, Bianca spent almost two hours each
way on the bus to and from school, from kindergarten through
8th grade. She was the first YES Appalachia Scholar to leave
home to attend an independent high school, graduating last
year from Chatham Hall, an all-girls boarding school in Virginia.
While at Chatham Hall, she was chosen as Head Prefect, a
member of the Honor Council, and was one of two students
accepted to Chatham Hall's Global Exchange Program. She
earned college credit at Johns Hopkins University's Biomedical
Engineering Innovation Summer Program and took "Med 101"
through Vanderbilt University's Program for Talented Youth.
The first in her family to attend college, Bianca is a freshman at
the University of Southern California, majoring in Human
Biology. She plans to attend medical school.
Since childhood, Connor has excelled in advanced math and
planned to pursue a career in engineering. In middle school, he
participated in DukeTIP Summer, the YES Adventure Academy,
and competed at the state level for Math Counts. While at Ashe
County High School, Connor was dually enrolled in the North
Carolina School for Science and Mathematics online program.
Now a Mechanical Engineering major at Vanderbilt University,
he builds, maintains, and upgrades the 3D printers in a research
lab on campus and volunteers as a mentor in the School of
Engineering Design Studio. Additionally, he works on personal
engineering projects, including engine modifications to the
Gear Pump Coffee Grinder he built and presented for his YES
Summer Symposium project in 2022. He recently exhibited his
custom 3D printer at the Tennessee Maker Fest. Connor plans
to pursue a graduate degree in Mechanical Engineering and a
career in computational simulation and mechanical design.
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