WC_052319

14 | May 23, 2019 | The winnetka Current school
winnetkacurrent.com
New Trier student named U.S. Presidential Scholar
Submitted by New Trier
High School
New Trier
senior Asher
Noel, a
resident of
Kenilworth,
was named
a 2019 U.S.
Presidential
Scholar
Noel
this month, one of the nation’s
highest honors for
high school students. On
June 23, he will attend a
White House-sponsored
ceremony in Washington
D.C., where he will receive
a Presidential Scholar
medallion.
“I’m getting the award,
but I’m a product of New
Trier: my teachers, friends,
and the community,” Noel
said. “I’m very thankful.”
According to the U.S.
Department of Education,
the U.S. Presidential Scholars
Program was established
in 1964 by executive
order of the President to
recognize and honor some
of the country’s most distinguished
graduating high
school seniors. Scholars
are selected based on their
academic success, artistic
and technical excellence,
essays, school evaluations
and transcripts, as well as
evidence of community
service, leadership and
demonstrated commitment
to high ideals. Of the 161
high school seniors selected
for the 55th class of U.S.
Presidential Scholars, four
students were from Illinois.
“One of the traits I admire
most about Asher is
his ability to conflate his
experiences across disciplines,”
said Noel’s former
AP English Language and
Composition teacher Megan
Garton, whom he invited
to attend the ceremony
in June. “Asher is flexible
in his thinking and moves
through the world with the
conviction that to engage in
any content area is to fully
immerse oneself in both
an artistic and a scientific
study.”
In addition to earning
an unweighted GPA of 4.0
and a perfect ACT score of
36 during his time at New
Trier, Noel was involved in
an array of extracurricular
activities. He was a state
and national champion
several times through his
participation with the Math
Team, Science Olympiad,
and Academic Challenge,
and served as a co-head
for all three organizations.
He participated in the 2018
Summer Science Program
in Astrophysics at New
Mexico Tech, where his
focus on Python programming,
orbital mechanics,
and data management was
voted best research presentation
by faculty and published
in the International
Astronomical Union’s
Minor Planet Circular.
Noel worked with fellow
senior Matt Geimer and the
New Trier administration
to establish a TrevIT Internship
Program in which
students provide technology
assistance to staff and
fellow students. He also
co-founded BinaryHeart
with seniors Jack Altman,
Brendon Lee, and Marzuk
Rashid, a student organization
that works to “spread
digital access” by collecting
donations of broken or
used electronic devices and
repairing them. Through
its partnership with Northwestern
Settlement and
other partner charities, BinaryHeart
donates the devices
to underserved youth
in the greater Chicago area.
“Although New Trier is
such a huge school, there
are so many niches for each
individual to get involved,”
Noel said, adding that the
friends he made through
extracurricular activities
provided a sense of community,
which contributed
to his academic success
along with his “amazing
teachers.”
Noel worked closely
throughout the application
process with Post-High
School Counselor Daniel
Rogan and received input
from his AP Biology teacher,
Frank Salerno. While
the process was more indepth
than any of his college
applications, Noel
said Rogan’s work with
previous candidates provided
invaluable experience
in going through the
application process.
“The contributions Asher
made during class discussion
were invaluable,” Garton
said. “I found myself
learning just as much from
Asher as he was from the
great artists we were studying.
He brought a fresh
and invigorating perspective
to works with which
I’m quite familiar, and
for the first time in years
I felt like I was navigating
new terrain. It was a
wonderful experience.”
New Trier presents spring play
‘This Girl Laughs,
This Girl Cries, This
Girl Does Nothing’
entertains crowd
Staff Report
The Performing Arts Division
of New Trier High
School recently presented
its spring play May 8-10 at
the Winnekta Campus Mc-
Gee Theatre. This year’s
choice was “This Girl
Laughs, This Girl Cries,
This Girl Does Nothing,”
by Finegan Kruckemeyer.
The production tells the
story of three young sisters
who are abandoned in
a forest and forced to find
their own way in the world.
From this fairytale beginning,
three resolutions are
made; one sister walks
one way to find purpose,
one walks the other way
to find adventure, and the
third stays right where she
is to build a home. The girls
fight Vikings, cross oceans,
tame wilds, and wonder if
they will meet again.
The play was directed
by Anna James-Noonan
and Nina Lynn.
Actors (left to right) Sabrina Hagedorn, playing Carmen, Marc Filippelli, as the
father, Charlotte Jaffe, as Beatrix, and Greta Zimmer, as the mother, perform in the
Performing Arts Division of New Trier High School production of, “This Girl Laughs,
This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing.” Photos by Lois Bernstein/22nd Century Media
Sarah Olson (left) and Akari Lovestrand play sailors
helping one of the sisters pull down a lighthouse.
Townspeople Skylar Aronson, Sara Bunge, Anita
Shubert and Elie Hartman are sad and hungry.
Albienne (center), played by Isabelle Cowan, decides to
be a baker. She is escorted away by townspeople Ellie
Hartman, Sara Bunge and Anita Shubert.