By Matt Kawahara, McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) Posted June 1, 2011
Christine Quan had just finished the last AP test of her high school career, and with senior year winding down, students in her government class at Pleasant Grove High near Sacramento, Calif., were signing yearbooks and chatting.
Then, at 3 p.m., Quan was called to the front office – and her day got even better.
With several faculty members eagerly looking on, Quan was notified by a surprise phone call that she was one of four high schoolers in the nation selected to receive the Proton Energy Scholarship.
The amount: $100,000 over four years.
“I thought I was in trouble,” said a surprised and beaming Quan, 17.
Offered by Proton OnSite, a Connecticut-based leader in hydrogen energy and innovation, the scholarship was open to high school students who have excelled – and plan to pursue further education – in the fields of science and technology.
More than 500 students from 49 states applied for the scholarship, said Proton OnSite owner Tom Sullivan, who gave Quan the good news.
Quan, the Pleasant Grove, Calif., valedictorian bound for Stanford University in the fall, was one of four unanimous choices by the scholarship selection committee due largely to her grades and interest in research, Sullivan said.
Quan said she plans to major in bioengineering at Stanford and do research, possibly in energy or medicine.
“It’ll help me pursue a lot more,” said Quan, who said she was already counting on other scholarships to help pay tuition and living expenses.
A member of the Science Olympiad and varsity cross-country teams at Pleasant Grove, Quan jumped into advanced science classes early in high school.
Last summer, in order to start applying that knowledge, Quan took up a research position through a program at UC Davis studying tyrosine sulfation, a process that could be used to enhance the production of pharmaceutical drugs, she said.
“I’m excited to interact with professors (at Stanford) and go into their cool labs and pursue research,” she said. “I don’t think it’s worth knowing a bunch of stuff if you’re not going to use it to help others.”
After humbly thanking Sullivan, Quan called her mom in a conversation that went like this:
“I’m just calling to tell you I just won a $100,000 scholarship,” she said.
Pause.
“A hundred thousand.”
Pause.
“No, like, a hundred thousand.”
