Academy student considered for highest honors

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Academy student considered for highest honors

Sabeek Pradhan had always been good at everything placed before him. School was easy for him. He played piano and composed music from a young age. But when he started running track and cross country a few years ago, he consistently came in last place.

His father, Kamal Pradhan, hated to see him struggling and asked if he wanted to quit.

Sabeek Pradhan told him ‘No,’ he wanted to keep at it.

“One thing that I like about him is that he is persistent,” Kamal Pradhan said.

Four years and a couple of school records later, and Sabeek Pradhan won the Michigan High School Athletic Association scholar-athlete award.

Now, Sabeek Pradhan’s work as a student at Hillsdale Academy is being recognized beyond the state of Michigan. He was selected by the U.S. Department of Education as one of 3,000 candidates for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program.

According to the department’s website, the program “was established in 1964, by executive order of the President, to recognize and honor some of our nation’s most distinguished graduating high school seniors.”

Sabeek Pradhan made the initial cut based on his ACT score, a perfect 36. Next came an intense application process including five essays, letters of recommendation, and an extracurricular resume.

Those extracurriculars are pretty solid.

Sabeek Pradhan is a black belt in karate. He won the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra Young Composers in Concert award twice, the first person ever to win both the junior and senior sections. He is heavily involved with the YMCA Michigan Youth Government Program. Last year he was named all-state in QuizBowl, and this year his team qualified for the national championships in Saint Louis.

His academics aren’t too shabby either. Sabeek Pradhan had finished the Academy’s math program by the end of his sophomore year, and has taken six credit hours per semester in math, economics, and  computer programming here at Hillsdale College.

This spring, those 3,000 applicants will be narrowed down to 141 Presidential Scholars, described by the department of education as “one of the nation’s highest honors for high school students.”

Sabeek Pradhan said the Academy has fostered his love of learning and set him up to pursue higher education at the University of Michigan, University of Chicago, an Ivy League school, or maybe even Hillsdale College.

“With only 17 people in my graduating class, it’s a very small, very close-knit community,” he said. “The culture of education and of hard work and excellence there is a lot better than what some of my friends at other high schools are describing. It’s been a really good environment to learn and grow in.”

ptimmis@hillsdale.edu