Two Alturas Preparatory Academy students nominated to be Presidential Scholars

IDAHO FALLS – Two students have a chance to earn a nationally prestigious award thanks to their well-rounded academic ability.

Eighteen-year-old Oliver Nathan and 17-year-old Ashtyn Mayo, seniors at Alturas Preparatory Academy, have been selected as candidates for the United States Presidential Scholars program. Now that the students have been nominated, Nathan and Mayo will fill out an application, which will be used to decide if they become one of the 161 students to receive the award.

“I didn’t know what it was at first. I’d never really heard of this opportunity,” Mayo said. “When I looked into it … I was really grateful to have been nominated, and I’m super excited to see how my application goes and how this process turns out.”

The Presidential Scholars award began in 1964, and it recognizes students that “represent excellence in education,” according to the Department of Education.

Nathan and Mayo were both nominated for the award due to their exceptionally high Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) scores, the students earning a 1530 and a 1520, respectively. This score puts Nathan and Mayo within the top 1% of all students who take the SAT, according to the College Board.

Both Nathan and Mayo spent time practicing before they took the SAT.

To prepare, Nathan spent time with a tutor over the summer, going over the material he would come across while taking practice tests.

“I took it before the school year started so that I could just be focused on that and not have to worry about other school stuff, so that really helped me,” Nathan said.

Mayo took the PSAT twice, once in 10th grade and once in 11th grade, but wasn’t happy with either of her scores.

“I knew I did great, but I thought I could do better, specifically on the math portion,” Mayo said.

To practice the math from previous years that she couldn’t remember, she took some practice courses offered by Alturas.

“(The courses) got me more used to remembering the math from the past and getting used to the types of questions and the style of answers that they were expecting,” Mayo said.

Now that the two students have been nominated for the award, they have to submit an application for review by a committee of secondary and post-secondary education officials. This committee will review around 4,000 of these applications to determine who advances further.

Rather than choose students who are the best test-takers, the committee “evaluates candidates on their academic achievement, personal characteristics, leadership and service activities,” according to the Department of Education.

The students were surprised to see some of the essay questions of the application.

“I was expecting them to be more academic focused, but I’m really seeing how a lot of the essays look for that more well-rounded student,” Mayo said.

One of the questions Nathan said he responded to was, “If you can improve one thing in the world, what would it be? Why would you change it, and how would you change it?”

He wrote about how society uses energy. Nathan did an internship with the Idaho National Laboratory, so he felt that he could draw from his personal experience.

“I was going to talk about … improving micro methods of creating energy, like through nuclear and through other sorts of sustainable sources,” Nathan said. “I also talk about the ways that we use energy, especially in city design … making people more or less reliant on things like automobiles and public transportation.”

Mayo summarized one of the essay questions as, “asking about a piece of media or art that you thought explained how you see yourself in the world and why.”

For this question, Mayo chose a piano song she’s played at a number of recitals and competitions called “Dancing on the Berlin Wall” by David Lanz. She described the song as being about how the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the reunification of people that followed.

“I feel like this piece… really represents how I feel we should be able to unify ourselves as a community, a global community, and how we need to make sure and break through those boundaries,” Mayo said.

After the committee evaluates these applications, they’ll select around 650 candidates to advance as semifinalists. Then the Commission on Presidential Scholars reviews the semifinalist applications, selecting up to 161 students to become Presidential Scholars.

Regardless of whether or not they advance as semifinalists, Nathan and Mayo have big plans for the rest of their lives.

Nathan doesn’t yet know what university he’ll attend, but he’s applied to schools such as Yale, Stanford and Princeton.

“In terms of career, I’d like to go into energy and energy policy. I think there’s a lot of really important work to be done in that field. I think we’re on the cusp of a lot of technological advancement in it, and I think it’s going to be very important going into the future,” Nathan said.

Mayo plans to attend either Brigham Young University or Utah State University. She has applied to both schools and is waiting to hear back from BYU.

“I’m hoping to study either something involving editing and publishing or technical writing. I would love to work in the scientific communications field or in the publishing industry with novels,” Mayo said. “I’m not entirely sure on direction yet, just kind of waiting to see what inspiration I get from classes, but I love writing, and I’m hoping to do something with that.”