Bellaire High School Student Named a U.S. Presidential Scholar

The Buzz team congratulates Bellaire High School senior Liana Wang on being named a U.S. Presidential Scholar this week.

The U.S. Presidential Scholar program is the top award for graduating seniors by the federal government – only .1 percent of the country’s graduating seniors are named as candidates, most based on scoring exceptionally well on the SAT or ACT and some based on achievements in the arts.

I have personally gotten to know Liana over the last two years, as she has been editor of our School Buzz blog, which included writing blog posts and managing the BHS team, currently our largest in the School Buzz program. After getting the opportunity to work with Liana, who will head to Yale University this fall, I am so proud but not at all surprised that she has received this prestigious honor, as she is extremely intelligent, dedicated and hard-working. And through it all, she’s humble as can be.

The next steps for the program includes traveling to Washington, DC for the awards ceremony in late June. Liana says she can’t wait to meet and be inspired all of the other Presidential Scholars.

“The award means a lot to me, not just because there are so few people (still in disbelief that I received this honor!)” Liana wrote in an email, “But also because it allowed me to recognize a teacher who has done a lot for me.” She explained that in the application for the award, students had to write an essay nominating an outstanding teacher who influenced them during high school. Liana nominated Mrs. Anna Loonam, who teaches AP Biology at Bellaire High School.

See a list of other U.S. Presidential Scholars from Texas and around the country. 

Other Buzz-area students who were candidates for this award include Tian-Tian He of Awty International School; James Fang, Lauren Li, Teresa Datta, Amy Fan, Amber Liu, Jennifer Wang, and Antony Yun of Bellaire High School; Victoria Songyang and Patrick Revilla of Carnegie Vanguard; Akshaya Annapragada, Anushka Madhuvarshi, Adrian Moga, Sasha Raman, Sachindra Sanam Venkata and Gary Zhang of DeBakey High School for Health Professions; Jackson Hassell and Saxton Fisher of The High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA); Kolby Killion of Houston Christian High School; Sita Yerramsetti of The Kinkaid School; John Vick of Lamar High School; Allison Eggert, Noah Kenner and Dong Lee of Memorial High School; Amy Dong, Eric Gao, Alexander Gajewski, Kanchana Raja, Sarah Bland, Lola Rucker and Anirudh Suresh of St. John's School; and Samuel Clark of Strake Jesuit College Preparatory. 

See Liana Wang’s blog posts for School Buzz plus all posts from the Bellaire High School team. Interested in becoming a School Buzz correspondent for your high school for 2016-17? See more details and apply here.