<p>Wow! This girl blows me away. I hope she gets into a great school with a full ride.</p>
<p>Reactions</a> to Intel semifinalist's inspiring story</p>
<p>Wow is right!!! This young lady is indeed very special! Wishing her all the best in her future studies and she is indeed worthy of a full ride wherever she ends up attending.</p>
<p>Just heard on the news that her family has been awarded subsidized housing–which is nice for them, but not so nice for whoever they jumped in the line just because of the publicity.</p>
<p>That is a heart-warming story. A novel research project that contrasts with the typical stories of the Stony Brook/Jericho/Melville train to fame!</p>
<p>[intel[/url</a>]</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://longisland.newsday.com/templates/simpleDB/?pid=391]Long”>http://longisland.newsday.com/templates/simpleDB/?pid=391]Long</a> Island’s 2012 Intel semifinalists](<a href=“http://www.stonybrook.edu/simons/intel.htm]intel[/url”>Intel | Simons Summer Research Program)</p>
<p>Good for her!!!</p>
<p>What I found MOST interesting is that out of 300 Intel semi-finalists, 61 are from Long Island?</p>
<p>sounds very fishy that 20% of all semi finalists come from one small area of the country.</p>
<p>texas: Long Island is a pretty large area with many school districts, some tops in the country. Quite a few schools have science personnel just for Intel projects. LI is always overrepresented (in a good way!!)</p>
<p>^^ Fishy is an understatement. It’s the result of years of jockeying and rule-bending by adults to capture the glory of a competition that is supposedly built for aspiring scientists. The stories of the development of paint by-the-numbers projects at Stony Brook to serve the appetite (and the resources) of the Ward Melville and Jericho of the region is old news. </p>
<p>Just like the beauty pageants, the current state of the Intel competition reflects how the judges lost their integrity and common sense years ago. How else could such hypocrisy and cynicism resist the most modest inquiry about how those projects that require multi-million dollar equipment surface? </p>
<p>The worst part is that the LI cancer is reaching other areas that can match access to state-of-the-art facilities, money, and … cynical mentors. </p>
<p>If the announcements of this competition were delayed until the end of the admission cycles, the participation would plummet as the resume building would lose its main attraction.</p>
<p>I know when I get harassed, my shell thinkens too.</p>
<p>Now where exactly is that there Great Neck North?</p>
<p>(Full Disclosure: I grew up on Long Island. And 13 semifinalists came from my high school.)</p>
<p>Saw this story on the Nightly News the other night. Good for her! It must be difficult enough just to manage to do well in school when one are homeless. I’ve no doubt she will get into whatever school she wants on a full scholarship.</p>
<p>mini - i wonder if it is just a recurring do loop. it is a great school, therefore students must be great and so we need to pick a bunch of them and it just happens each year?</p>
<p>That’s a very inspiring story!</p>
<p>We have two young men in our church who have been homeless off and on for many years. Their determination to take the bus to church, to be involved in activities, to get to school (neither has a great school record; their mom is mentally ill), their friendships with all the kids, and to try to overcome their background is inspiring to me, as well.</p>
<p>“mini - i wonder if it is just a recurring do loop. it is a great school, therefore students must be great and so we need to pick a bunch of them and it just happens each year?”</p>
<p>For my high school, it’s a little different, as it is not geographically based, and they pull students, strictly by examination, from a huge population base (in theory, more than seven million). Then huge resources are poured into these students once they get there - and the advisors have got the prize thang down to “a science”. And, yes, they do expect that lots of winners will come from there.</p>
<p>On LI, a lot of these school districts are very, very wealthy indeed. Some of them include high numbers of immigrant families who have risen economically, and drive their children hard. Access to equipment is easier to come by than in the middle of, say, Missouri.</p>
<p>“Some of them include high numbers of immigrant families who have risen economically, and drive their children hard” </p>
<p>and happen to have extensive connections in the scientific field.</p>
<p>Isn’t it also true that certain universities, like Stony Brook, dedicate a fair amount of research money and time towards this competition? I believe there was an article in the NYTimes a few years ago about what it takes to win and each semi finalist admitted that they had significant help from professors in the field. Stony Brook was mentioned in the article.</p>
<p>Is it fishy that the majority of the semifinalists are asian or indian? Or are there just a much greater number of asian or indian applications?</p>
<p>If the govt awarded subsidized housing because of publicity, that is wrong. But to award parents and kids who do a great job in the face of difficulty is right.</p>
<p>Lighten up, Xiggi. The thread was supposed to be one of admiration, not resentment. I am from Long Island, too, though not far enough east to make Stony Brook facilities that readily accessible, and I can tell you that the kids who get into the research program at our HS work very hard (it’s hard even to get in–my son was rejected from the program). Yes, it’s become part of the culture here, but how is that different from the culture of sports or IB or whatever else they may value in other places? And don’t different geographic locations confer different advantages? Should I complain because my child doesn’t have access to mountaineering programs? If the colleges reap benefits, how is that different from the world of graduate research? Realize also the incredible double-edged sword contained in all the resources here: my son’s stats in our zip code are virtually indistinguishable from those of 30 of his classmates. If we lived somewhere else, he might stand out.</p>
<p>What is ‘fishy’ about Asian or Indian kids being semi finalists? Not sure I understand the question.</p>