MCPS Student Named U.S. Presidential Scholar

May 8, 2014

A Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) student has been named a 2014 U.S. Presidential Scholar for outstanding academic achievement, leadership, citizenship, service, and contribution to school and community.

Hueyjong Shih of Montgomery Blair High School was one of two winners from the state of Maryland, and is among 141 students nationwide to be named Presidential Scholar winners. All the winners will be honored during a ceremony in Washington, D.C. on June 22.

The U.S. Presidential Scholars Program was created in 1964 to honor academic achievement and was expanded in 1979 to recognize students who demonstrate exceptional talent in the visual, literary and performing arts. Since 1983, each Presidential Scholar has invited his or her most inspiring and challenging teacher to travel to Washington, D.C., to receive a Teacher Recognition Award from the U.S. Department of Education and to participate in the recognition events. Shih’s most influential teacher was Angelique Bosse, a teacher in the magnet program at Blair.

MCPS had seven of the 11 semifinalists from the state of Maryland. They are:

Montgomery Blair High School
Aanchal Johri
Hueyjong Shih

Albert Einstein High School
Malaika V. Temba (Scholar for the Arts)

Richard Montgomery High School
Arvand C. Homer
Clark B. Xu

Walt Whitman High School
Gabrielle S. Tender

Winston Churchill High School
Aditya D. Dash

MCPS also had 38 students who were named candidates for the Presidential Scholars program—more than half of the candidates from the state of Maryland. See the list here. http://www2.ed.gov/programs/psp/2014/candidates.pdf

The 2014 U.S. Presidential Scholars are comprised of one young man and one young woman from each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and from U.S. families living abroad.

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