Nashua High School South senior Rebecca Zhu has been named a U.S. Presidential Scholar. (Courtesy photo)

WASHINGTON – Nashua High School South senior Rebecca Zhu describes herself as “a passionate STEM student” who seems to have taken every advanced placement (AP) course she could find.

Her loves include coding consumer software – especially mobile apps – which led her to create a fashion Instagram account.

And somehow, Zhu has found the time to become “obsessed with Sudoku,” and to be an “avid researcher” whose interest in finding “solutions to complicated problems” ranges from network security to migraines.

Given those interests, and accomplishments – there’s more of both on her resume – it appears that Zhu would be a hands-down choice for a 2021 U.S. Presidential Scholar award.

As it turned out, Zhu’s name was indeed on the list of this year’s Presidential Scholars, which U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona announced last week.

Zhu is one of two New Hampshire high school seniors named a 2021 Presidential Scholar, the other being Fahim Ahmed, a senior at Goffstown Area High School in Goffstown.

Each year since it was created in 1964, the Presidential Scholars award honors one male and one female high school senior from each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, according to the Department of Education.

An additional 15 Presidential Scholars are chosen at-large, 20 more from the arts, and another 20 from career and technical education.

Honored as recipients in the program’s Distinguished Teachers category were Michelle Cohen, a Nashua High School South science teacher, who was nominated by Zhu.

Likewise, Ahmed nominated Goffstown Area High School English and dance teacher Christina Philibotte.

Patricia Brock, a social studies teacher at St. Thomas of Canterbury School, was also nominated as a distinguished teacher.

Cardona, the Education Secretary, said this year’s Presidential Scholars “represent extraordinary achievements for our extraordinary times.”

He said he is “delighted to join President Biden in saluting these outstanding young people for their achievements, service, character and continued pursuit of excellence.”

For Zhu, what may seem like a lot of work to some is her way of having a “positive impact on my community.”

A good example is “Expressions: A Mobile App for Children with Autism,” an app she created with the goal of helping children with autism “empathize with others by recognizing emotions and helping stay calm.”

While current emotion recognition technology geared toward children with autism “uses positive reinforcement techniques such as flashcards,” that approach “cannot fully embody the complexity of human emotions,” according to Zhu.

Expressions, however, teaches children with autism to “learn to recognize emotions through real facial expressions, using machine-learning facial and emotion recognition technologies.”

Expressions apparently impressed the judges for Duke University’s LiveWell 2020 App Competition: They chose Expressions as the best overall high school app.

To read more about Zhu and her projects, research and accomplishments, go to www.rebecca-zhu.me/#top.

According to the Department of Education, meanwhile, the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars selects scholars annually based on their academic success, artistic and technical excellence, essays, school evaluations and transcripts, as well as evidence of community service, leadership and demonstrated commitment to high ideals.

Zhu, Ahmed and the other 159 high school seniors selected as 2021 Presidential Scholars were chosen from the more than 6,000 candidates who qualified for the honor, according to the DOE.

They were chosen based on their “outstanding performance on the college board SAT or ACT exams or through nominations made by (top school officials), or by “other partner recognition organizations” such as “the National YoungArts Foundationís nationwide YoungArts program,” according to the DOE.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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