David Crane ’13 was recently named a semifinalist for the United States Presidential Scholars Award. The program was created to honor and recognize distinguished high school Seniors, according to the United States Department of Education’s website. The application process for the award began in January with an e-mail notifying selected students that they had qualified to apply for Presidential Scholar based on their exemplary SAT scores. Candidates then had the opportunity to answer several short response questions to complete the application. The 500 semi-finalists were chosen from a pool of over 2,500 students and announced on April 15. Up to 121 students will be selected as academic scholar finalists and 20 as arts scholar finalists. Finalists will go to Washington D.C. this summer and meet with President Barack Obama. Each finalist is able to choose a faculty member to accompany them to Washington. Crane will bring Geoffrey Tanner, Instructor in Biology, if selected. Crane said Tanner, who also wrote his recommendation for the competition, has had a significant influence on his time at Andover. “In terms of pure academics, I’m definitely not the top, even at this school… [So] I’m really honored to have made it this far,” said Crane. Outside of academics, Crane has dedicated his time to working with younger students on campus. A four-year Senior, Crane has helped out with orientation, served as a prefect, a Blue Key and as a PACE Senior. He is also a co-captain of the Boys Varsity Volleyball team and a coordinator of the community service project ARC, in which students work with disabled individuals. Crane said that he chooses extracurriculars that interest him and not what the judges might want to see. The finalists for the Presidential Scholars program will be announced in early May. This year, eleven seniors from Andover qualified to apply for Presidential Scholar, though Crane is the only semifinalist. The qualified seniors were Crane, Connie Cheng ’13, Tyler Devlin ’13, Emily Field ’13, Garrick Gu ’13, Sara Kang ’13, Anjali Krishnamachar ’13, Katherine Shih ’13, Jennifer Sluka ’13, Justin Wang ’13 and Gregory Young ’13.
