talk to >> edward gartner
St. Louis University High School senior Edward Gartner, 18, is set for academic success after being chosen for a Questbridge scholarship to Princeton University. Questbridge is a national nonprofit that awards full scholarships to exceptional students with financial challenges. More than 14,400 U.S. high-schoolers applied in 2016, and Edward was one of just 767 awardees. Selection is based on student essays, teacher and counselor recommendations, grades and the ACT exam, on which Edward earned a perfect score. His scholarship will be worth about $260,000 over four years. He hopes to study bioengineering.
How did you learn you won the scholarship?
I was about to go into seventh period at school last month when the announcement email was sent out. A friend said I should check to see if I had made it, but class was starting, so I had to wait. I felt nervous and distracted during class, then I looked at my email when it was over. I couldn’t stop smiling or shaking.
Who did you share the news with?
I knew my school counselor, Kate Kindbom, would want to hear. I wouldn’t have known about the Questbridge program if she hadn’t encouraged me to apply. My mom, Aggie, is in a bit of a state of shock; she’s a little sad for me to move away, but she’s proud of me.
What else do you want to study at Princeton?
I’m also interested in self-healing materials for use in areas like rocket building—materials that can repair themselves when damaged, instead of causing mission failure. And I want to study nanotechnology and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.
checkmate>>wilson gao
It’s hard to imagine how busy sixth-grader Wilson Gao, pictured above, finds time to engage in his varied interests, let alone excel at them.
Wilson, who attends Parkway West Middle School, has been making waves as a musician, mathematician and chess competitor. His family relocated from Illinois to Town & Country in 2013. Wilson’s father, David Gao, says it wasn’t long before teachers here began noticing his talents. He’s been playing piano since age 4, chess since age 5, and violin since age 9.
He also is a whiz with numbers and competes annually in Mathleague mathematics contests. In November 2016, he and three schoolmates took first place for their grade in the tournament’s team competition at Selvidge Middle School. Each placed in the top 10 in individual competition, too. “I’ve done it before, but I still get nervous every time,” Wilson says of Mathleague. “I like math because I think it’s easier than other subjects, and there’s more logic to it.”
In 2016, his skill on the violin earned him a seat with the Parkway-Rockwood Youth Honor Orchestra. “I always liked listening to music when I was little, and hearing my mom play the piano,” he says. He’s had private and school-based music instruction, and math and chess coaching from his father.
Wilson’s chess successes have included championship titles for his age group. He says his interest in the game began at a very young age, when he started playing with a miniature chess set. “Wilson earned his very first prize check in 2013, and some nice checks afterward, competing against adult players in tournaments such as the Chicago Open,” David Gao says.
The 12-year-old is ready for a new challenge: tennis. “I started taking lessons in the summer,” he says. “I’m good, but not as good as I am at math or chess.”
cyber success>>drew rollins
Drew Rollins is proving that middle school isn’t too early to prepare for a technology career.
The Rockwood LaSalle Springs eighth-grader has been interested in ‘white hat hacking’ for about three years. White hats are well-intentioned people who hack into computer systems to help organizations identify and fix their vulnerabilities. Drew, 13, says he was looking for a challenge last year and decided to try cracking the security on his family’s NetGear Nighthawk WiFi router.
“I got interested in the router because it’s basically a mini-computer,” he says. “I was just messing around, looking through it for security flaws. I found a huge one I didn’t expect.” From his laptop, he was able to access the router’s ‘root’ level of security, the system’s highest level of administrative control. “That’s a danger to the online security of everyone who has that same router—thousands of people,” he says. “I wanted to make sure they wouldn’t have issues with it.”
Drew notified NetGear of the problem. It took company representatives some time to reply, but they told him they were fixing the flaw. They sent Drew a new router and security cameras, and suggested an internship when he’s older. “I’ll probably do that,” he says. “I want to continue programming and finding flaws in popular software.” Drew’s story was picked up extensively by tech bloggers and industry publications such as Wired and Computerworld, and KSDK Channel 5 called about a TV interview. “My parents are pretty proud,” he notes.
The self-taught hacker plans to take online cybersecurity courses when he’s 16, and he eventually wants to earn a master’s degree in computer science. In the meantime, he has plans for his new router. “I’ll look for vulnerabilities in that one too,” he says.
