NE45D HOME: http://www.ne45d.com
Elk
Grove teen goes 9 for 9 in elite college
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article2577688.html
Lloyd Chen
can't afford the $70 for a high school yearbook. His family can't pay for a
graduation party or a trip abroad. But the Laguna Creek valedictorian has
something his fellow graduates don't: nine full-ride offers to elite
universities.
Lloyd Chen
can't afford the $70 for a high school yearbook. His family can't pay for a
graduation party or a trip abroad.
But the Laguna
Creek valedictorian has something his fellow graduates don't: nine full-ride
offers to elite universities.
The Elk Grove
teen graduating today with a 4.79 grade-point average achieved the rare feat of
acceptance by all nine schools to which he applied: Stanford, Harvard,
Princeton, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC
San Diego and UC Davis.
He chose
Harvard.
"It's
been my dream since I was 8 years old," said Chen, 17.
His dream came
true in December, when Harvard sent an acceptance letter. "It was the
happiest moment of my life," Chen said.
The Cambridge,
Mass., university had an acceptance rate of 5.8 percent for its incoming fall
2013 class. Only six students in the Sacramento region were admitted into
Harvard this year from the 234 who applied – an even lower 2.6 percent
rate – according to Suzy Underwood of the Harvard Club of Sacramento.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/calif-teen-100-scholarships-article-1.1365140
Harvard, Stanford or MIT? Impoverished
Calif. teen has pick with 100% scholarships
Lloyd Chen, 17, went from penniless and fatherless
to a high school senior with a 4.79 grade-point average and a killer personal
essay.
Thursday, June 6, 2013, 2:43 PM
A
California teen who grew up penniless after his father abandoned his family has
been offered free rides at nine prestigious universities.
Lloyd
Chen, 17, chose Harvard, his dream school for nearly a decade, and will never
forget the moment he opened the envelope with his acceptance letter.
"It
was the happiest moment of my life," Chen told The Sacramento Bee.
His
others options? Yale, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, UCLA, U.C. Berkeley, U.C. San
Diego and U.C. Davis. Not too shabby.
Being
admitted into the Cambridge, Mass., juggernaut, which has an acceptance rate of
just 5.8 percent for its class this fall, entails overcoming seemingly
insurmountable odds - but that rate is merely the tip of the iceberg.
Chen
was raised in the city of Elk Grove in abject poverty. His father left the
family when he was 1 year old, shortly after they emigrated from South Korea.
His mother, Susie Yun, cannot work because of an autoimmune deficiency and her
battle with clinical depression.
"I've
never met anyone who's had so many things going against them, who's risen above
them all," Chen's high school counselor Alycia Sato told local station KNBC.
In
middle school, he would purchase candy and resell it to other students to raise
money to buy a laptop and camera for schoolwork.
"He's not that smart. But he
works harder than anybody," Yun said. "Most people complain. He doesn't complain."
After
his older sister left for college, Chen took on the role of caretaker for his
younger sister.
As
a freshman, he attended Mira Loma High School, 38 miles from home, because of
its rigorous International Baccalaureate program.
But
the gas money needed for the drive was taking a toll on the family's wallet.
Sometimes Yun would wait in the car all day, reading the newspaper, waiting for
classes to end.
He
transferred to Laguna Creek High School, which is closer to his family home,
during his sophomore year.
Chen
graduated top of his class May 30 with a 4.79 grade-point average, despite
these hurdles.
But
Chen did not think of his life as riddled with hardships until he had to put
his life into context senior year to apply for college, reported The Sacramento Bee.
"I don't need fancy clothes. I
don't need expensive SAT classes. I don't even need a father," he wrote in his
college application essay.
Chen
met with Sato biweekly to figure out how he should tell his life story,
deciding what to include in personal statements and - perhaps more importantly
- what to leave out.
"He
didn't want anyone to feel sorry for him or give him anything based on
pity," Sato said.
He
was awarded the Gates Millennium Scholarship, which will cover any funds that
Harvard will not. The scholarship promises to cover his room and board, textbooks
and tuition through graduate school. So after Harvard, Chen plans to go
straight to his master's degree.
He
still isn't sure what he will major in, but he has serious interest in
economics, psychology and engineering.
"His
dream to go to Harvard came true," one friend said. "I honestly
didn't have a huge reaction, because I knew all along that he would get
in."
http://wkrn.com/2015/08/19/homeless-teen-attends-university-of-tennessee/
Homeless teen attends University of
Tennessee
WKRN web staff
Published: August 19, 2015, 5:51 am
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) – Jordan Brown has faced more
trials than your average high school student, but he was able to overcome
difficulties and find success.
The University of Tennessee student moved into Fred Brown
Residence Hall this weekend. For Brown, it is the first time he has had a
permanent place to sleep in months.
ÒThis past year since about January, IÕve been homeless. That
was pretty rough,Ó said brown.
Dorm room 325 at the University of Tennessee is now his home.
ÒIt seems very unreal. It feels like a dream, like itÕs all too
easy and too smooth,Ó he said.
High school was anything but easy and smooth. BrownÕs family
fell on hard times more than once. After the family was evicted, the
teenager lived with friends, even spending a few nights sleeping in Maryville
parks.
ÒBy not having that stability in my home life or necessarily in
my personal life, IÕve had to find stability elsewhere,Ó said Brown.
So he stayed in books, entering UT with a 33 ACT score and more
than 30 AP credits. Brown says he wants to eventually become a quantum
physicist.
ÒIÕd like to work in particle mechanics,Ó he said.
Maryville High School counselors guided Brown through the
college application process, finding scholarships and funding so he could keep
learning.
ÒIn all of my career, IÕve never had another Jordan Brown. To
say that heÕs outstanding does not do him credit. I am tremendously proud of him because he doesnÕt look at
obstacles to be a reason to not be successful,Ó said guidance counselor
Teresa LeQuire.
Brown has made misfortunes part of the past, leading to a bright
future.
ÒI wouldnÕt go back and change a thing, not a single one IÕd
gone through, because I wouldnÕt be the person I am today,Ó he said.
Throughout high school, Brown was active in student council,
science and math competitions, choir, band and clubs, working a part-time job
for extra money. Brown is technically classified as a sophomore at UT.
Ask a MacArthur genius: Can a fake leaf commercialize
photosynthesis?
Peidong Yang is allergic to hype — a fact that is perhaps incompatible
with the MacArthur ÒgeniusÓ grant he was
just awarded. ÒThe biggest misunderstandings about our work come when our results are
exaggerated,Ó he says, revealing that he worries about his current work
overshadowing the challenges ahead.
For any other chemist, that worry might be premature. But for Yang, it makes
sense: After all, the discovery for which he is best known — how to use
tiny wires and bacteria to perform photosynthesis in what he calls an
Òartificial leafÓ — is astonishing indeed. The leaf takes advantage of
the amazing
properties of semiconductor nanowires that are typically 100 to 1,000 times thinner
than a human hair. These miniature wires can act like lasers, conduct
electricity and even put RNA into individual cells, and now Yang has harnessed
them to mimic one of natureÕs most perfect systems.
http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/05/so-you-know-that-10000-hours-makes-an-expert-rule-bunk/
Your
Genes DonÕt Fit: Why 10,000 Hours of Practice WonÕt Make You an Expert
And that was
it. I could do that much — but that was all. I was hopeless. My brain
simply doesnÕt work in a way that allows me to write code. So saying that if
IÕd spent ten thousand hours talking to Rax, I would be a successful computer
programmer, because anyone can be a successful computer programmer, is crazy.
I say: Talent
+ 10,000 hours of work = Success. Or to put it another way: Nature + nurture =
Success.
Others say:
10,000 hours of work = Success. Or to put it another way: Nurture = Success.
He Has Millions and a New Job at Yahoo. Soon, HeÕll Be 18.
One
of YahooÕs newest employees is a
17-year-old high school student in Britain. As of Monday, he is one of its
richest, too.
That student, Nick DÕAloisio, a programming whiz who wasnÕt even
born when Yahoo was founded in 1994, sold his news-reading app, Summly, to the
company on Monday for a sum said to be in the tens of millions of dollars.
Yahoo said it would incorporate his algorithmic invention, which takes
long-form stories and shortens them for readers using smartphones, in its own
mobile apps, with Mr. DÕAloisioÕs help.
ÒIÕve
still got a year and a half left at my high school,Ó he said in a telephone
interview on Monday. But he will make arrangements to test out of his classes
and work from the Yahoo office in London, partly to abide by the companyÕs new
and much-debated policy that prohibits working from home.
Mr.
DÕAloisio, who declined to comment on the price paid by Yahoo (the technology
news site AllThingsD pegged the purchase price at about $30 million), was
SummlyÕs largest shareholder.
SummlyÕs
other investors, improbably enough, included Wendi Murdoch, Ashton Kutcher and
Yoko Ono. The most important one was Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong billionaire,
whose investment fund supported Mr. DÕAloisioÕs idea early on, before it was
even called Summly.
ÒThey
took a gamble on me when I was a 15-year-old,Ó Mr. DÕAloisio said, by providing
seed financing that let him hire employees and lease office space.
The
fund read about Mr. DÕAloisioÕs early-stage app on TechCrunch, the Silicon
Valley blog of record, found his e-mail address and startled him with a message
expressing interest.
The
others signed up later. ÒBecause it was my first time around, people just
wanted to help,Ó he said.
For
teenagers who fancy themselves entrepreneurs — and their parents, too
— the news of the sale conjured up some feelings of inadequacy, but also
awe. For Brian Wong, the 21-year-old founder of Kiip, a mobile rewards company,
the reaction was downright laughable: ÒI feel old!Ó
A
few years ago, Mr. Wong was described in the news media as the youngest person
ever to receive venture capital funding. But a couple of younger founders came
along — Òand then Nick broke all of our records,Ó Mr. Wong said on
Monday.
Among
the attributes that helped Mr. DÕAloisio, he said, was a preternatural ability
to articulate exactly what he wanted Summly to be. ÒThere were no umms, no
uhhs, no hesitations, no insecurities,Ó Mr. Wong said.
Mr.
DÕAloisio, for his part, sounded somewhat uninterested in answering questions
about his age on Monday. He acknowledged that it was an advantage in some pitch
meetings, and certainly in the news media, Òbut so was the strength of the
idea.Ó He was more eager to talk about his new employer, Yahoo, which is trying
to reinvent itself as a mobile-first technology company (having dropped the
digital media tagline it used before Marissa Mayer became chief executive last
year).
ÒPeople
are kind of underestimating how powerful itÕs going to become and how much
opportunity is there,Ó he said.
For
a company that badly wants to be labeled innovative, those words are worth a
lot.
Mr.
DÕAloisioÕs father, who works at Morgan Stanley, and his mother, a lawyer, had
no special knowledge of technology. But they nurtured their sonÕs fascination
with it and he started coding at age 12. Eventually he decided to develop an
app with what he calls an Òautomatic summarization algorithm,Ó one that Òcan
take pre-existing long-form content and summarize it.Ó In other words, it tries
to solve a problem that is often summed up with the abbreviation tl;dr: Òtoo
long; didnÕt read.Ó
Summly
officially came online last November. By December, Mr. DÕAloisio was talking to
Yahoo and other suitors.
Yahoo
said in a statement that while the Summly app would be shut down, Òwe will
acquire the technology and youÕll see it come to life throughout YahooÕs mobile
experiences soon.Ó
Other
news-reading apps have attracted corporate attention as of late, reflecting the
scramble by media companies to adapt to skyrocketing traffic from mobile
devices. The social network LinkedIn was said to be pursuing an app called
Pulse earlier this month. Still, the eight-figure payday for a teenage
entrepreneur on Monday struck some as outlandish and set off speculation that
Yahoo was willing to pay almost any price for Òcool.Ó
Mr.
DÕAloisio, though, will have plenty of time to prove his and his algorithmÕs
worth. As for the sizable paycheck from Yahoo, he said he did not have any
specific plans for the sudden windfall. ÒItÕs going to be put into a trust fund
and my parents will help manage it,Ó he said.
He
did say, however, that Òangel investing could be really fun.Ó When not working
at Yahoo, he will keep up with his hobbies — cricket in particular
— and set his sights on attending college at Oxford. His intended major
is philosophy.
Tumblr
n 2008, he
sold a 25percent stake to investors for $750,000.
The investor
share of the company was $125million at the time of the deal, according to
AllThingsD.
Karp grew up
on Manhattan's Upper West Side, the son of a music composer father who wrote
songs for films and TV shows and a mother who was a teacher.
He
taught himself how to code HTML at age 11 and began setting up his own
consulting business shortly thereafter.
His parents allowed him to drop out of high school at age 15 and complete the
remainder of his education by homeschooling.
At age 17, he
moved to Japan, where he cemented his skill as a programmer and began pitching
his ideas to tech companies.
He moved back
to New York and sold his services as a consultant. He founded Tumblr in 2007 at
age 21 - and it quickly consumed all of his time.
He started up
an office in Manhattan and has ardently resisted the lure of moving to Silicon
Valley. He also tried to resist the money that the tech world had to offer.
He told the
Guardian that he wanted to remain independent - believing he could grow the
company by growing ad revenue naturally.
Within a year,
though, he was accepting funds from venture capital investors.
He currently
lives with his girlfriend in a modest apartment in Manhattan's West Village.
Rachel Eakley is a chef and a graduate student studying psychology.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ex-olympian-reveals-shes-living-171958982.html
Ex-Olympian
reveals she's living in bug-infested trailer, broke and unemployed
Debi
Thomas' life isn't what it used to be.
The
former Olympic figure skater and physician made history when she
became the first African-American athlete to win a Winter Games medal when
she took home the bronze at the 1988 Olympics. She recently revealed
she is now broke, unemployed and living in a bed bug-infested
trailer.
"(I
feel) frustrated," Thomas said in the emotional episode of "Iyanla:
Fix My Life" that aired Saturday on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
Thomas turned
to life coach Iyanla Vanzant after "crippling life
challenges" that stemmed from a pair of divorces that financially
drained her and forced her to close her medical practice in Virginia.
The two-time U.S. national champion is now living in a mobile home in
the Appalachian Mountains with her fiancŽ and his two children. She lost
custody of her 13-year-old son.
"Today
I meet you in a trailer thatÕs overcrowded and infested with bed
bugs," Vanzant told Thomas in a preview clip. "Are you
aware that your life has become unmanageable?"
Thomas started
a GoFundMe page in December 2014 with the hopes of raising $10,000,
though she managed to collect only $3,763. She additionally laid out a
number of prospective projects, one of which included starring in her own
reality TV show, to help reach her donation goal.
"This
cause has been developed as an emergency fund for Dr. Debi Thomas, her fiancŽ,
Jamie Looney, and their family to restore financial stability after severe
sudden financial losses over the past couple of years associated with a
combination of financially crippling life challenges," the page
read. "This assistance will help cover expenses while they complete
their promising projects currently in the works."
Thomas,
48, had earned her medical degree after graduating from Stanford
University in 1991 and went on to become an orthopedic surgeon. She
claimed her personality clashes led to two lost jobs before she decided to
open her own private practice, which she eventually shut down.
http://www.npr.org/2013/07/31/207288030/lady-in-black-burka-avenger-fights-for-pakistans-girls
Lady In Black: 'Burka
Avenger' Fights For Pakistan's Girls
Her message is, 'Justice, Peace
and Education for All.' "
A caped crusader is on the loose
in the mountains of Pakistan, but she's not your traditional superhero. The
Burka Avenger wears a flowing black veil — only her brown eyes are visible
— as she fights corrupt politicians and religious zealots. Her weapons of
choice: pens and books.
JULY
31, 2013
http://world.time.com/2013/08/01/burka-avenger-conservative-pakistans-new-animated-liberal-superheroine/
Burka
Avenger:
Conservative PakistanÕs New Animated Liberal Superheroine
By
Krista Mahr @kristamahrAug. 01, 2013