Meet your Student Council

We are pleased to introduce our Student Council members for the 2008-2009 academic year. These outstanding college students give advice based on their own experiences and offer information on Society programs, scholarships, and activities throughout the upcoming year. Membership on the Student Council provides an important leadership opportunity beyond high school. Members graduating from high school in 2009 will be eligible to apply for next year's Council. Several members of our 2007-08 Council are continuing to serve as senior Council members; our new Council members and our student members will greatly benefit from their advice. Our new Council members come from around the world, from New York to California, and from Belarus to Mexico.

Note from New Student Council Member Candance Samuel

Candance Samuel
Tucker High School 2008
Tucker, GA
Claes Nobel Academic Scholarship Recipient
Harvard 2012

I wish to join Student Council so that I am able to give students a real and honest perspective on college life and the college admissions process. In retrospect, what helped me avoid the pitfalls and confusion associated with applying to college was having a friend who had undergone the same process, giving me advice. I want to encourage other students to be confidant in themselves and their abilities, and to learn how to express their interests and pursue their passions both in high school and college.

I think what the NSHSS Council does is amazing. Not only do they inspire confidence and motivation in high school students, but they also open them up to other options they may have not considered before. One of these options is learning that there is more than one perfect school for a person. Not everyone is destined to attend the Ivy League or even state school; today there are literally thousands of different types of schools to meet students’ social and academic desires. I am dedicated, and passionate about helping others achieve their goals and look forward to helping them through the NSHSS Student Council.

Student Council Member Santi Wong, who led the NSHSS pledge at Scholar’s Day in May, also participated in the World Diversity Leadership Seminar and has written her account for us.

Continuing Council Member Carlos Bortoni, Harvard sophomore from Monterrey, Mexico, is one of our hardest working mentors. He spoke to members at our annual Scholar’s Day Celebration in Washington, D.C., in the U.S. Senate Caucus Room, and also participated with NSHSS in the NAFSA conference in Washington, D.C. in May. You can read his remarks to the Scholar’s Day audience here.

Student Council Alumni Update

We would also like to share an update from Claes Nobel Academic Scholarship recipient Shannon Babb, who has served on the NSHSS Student Council and spoken at member events. She spent the summer doing environmental research at the Arctic Circle, the youngest researcher to have studied there. She wrote to this summer:

"Greetings from the top of the world! I am currently 158 miles above the Arctic Circle on the North Slope of Alaska, where I am doing water research at Toolik Lake Field Station. Toolik is the largest terrestrial Arctic research base on the planet, but only about 350 scientists get to travel here each year and most only stay for a few days. I get to stay at Toolik for nearly two months and am the youngest researcher here. The research I am doing increases our understanding of fragile Arctic ecosystems as well as monitors the global health of the planet. It's an amazing experience."

Veronika Bordas, Harvard sophomore and Student Council member who is a Claes Nobel Scholarship recipient, spent the summer in Germany studying film production and is eager to share her experience with NSHSS.

And Pegah Zardoost, new Council Member at UC Berkeley, shares some of her insights about remaining true to yourself in order to succeed.