A diverse group of more than 700 top-performing high school students from across the nation gathered at George Washington University over the weekend to celebrate their academic success, connect with college recruiters and corporations, and pledge to make the world a better place.
It was all part of the annual “Scholar’s Day” for the National Society of High School Scholars—a Georgia-based nonprofit that provides scholarships and other forms of assistance to students who are the best in their schools.
“The ultimate purpose is to reach young people around the world, to give them resources to kind of help them in their life choices, education, becoming global citizens,” said NSHSS scholarship director Susan Thurman, who said that the organization now has about one million members worldwide, including alumni.
“So the main thing is to recognize them, encourage them, provide resources,” Thurman said. “We have a very diverse membership.”
Indeed, among a select group of students recognized Saturday for winning scholarships from NSHSS were students such as Meilani Meleisea, of San Diego, who won a “Women of Tomorrow” scholarship for her work in bringing back the choir at her high school, where she also ran track.
As a student of Chinese, Samoan, Irish and Scottish background—but whose Samoan features are more prominent—Meleisea said her life has been filled with a series of “can’ts.”
“I was told I couldn’t go to college because I’m Samoan and that Samoans only go to college if they play sports,” Meleisea said. “I’ll be going to UC Berkeley on a full-ride and studying molecular biology and public health,” she said to applause from the jam-packed room, which included some 1,500 people.
