Juniors Receive Prestigious College Awards

by Ellie Strachan, SSLI '25 

For the past few weeks, juniors have begun receiving awards from different colleges for their academic achievements. Teachers nominate different students for the various awards, and there are many more to come. So far, Jacob Cohen, Carly Smith, Risa Rogers, Hannah Fineman, and Yael Pedram have received awards.

Art Mandel, Head of College Counseling, stated, "There are a number of colleges that give awards to high school students to honor their achievement in academics, community service, athletics, and who are devoted to helping others." In terms of the process for winning the awards, Mandel explained, "In the beginning of January, I sent a questionnaire out to the teachers to nominate students with a list of all the awards and asked the teachers to nominate students. So, students are chosen by consensus."

Here are the award recipients so far:

Congrats, Jacob! (Schechter Instagram)

Junior Jacob Cohen was awarded the Rensselaer Medal from the The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). This prestigious award is only given to one junior, selected from 5,000 high schools, who shows a deep understanding of innovation and technology. Along with the award, Cohen received a $160,000 scholarship to put towards his future education at Rensselaer. Cohen expressed, “I am very excited and happy that I won the award due to the fact that RPI is a very good engineering and computer science school, and the scholarship provides the majority of tuition.”

Congratulations, Carly! (Schechter Instagram)

Junior Carly Smith received the Tulane University Book Award. This award is given to a student who shows many leadership qualities, succeeds academically, and helps the community. Smith expressed, "I knew that people began getting awards, but I did not know if I was going to get one, so I was surprised and excited when I was told I was getting one. I'm really happy and honored that I was considered for the award and am very happy to have been chosen from among the many talented students in our grade to get one."

Congrats, Risa! (Schechter Instagram)

Junior Risa Rogers won the University of Rochester Bausch+Lomb Honorary Science Award. This is awarded to a student who excels in their STEM classes, particularly science and mathematics. Rogers said, "I feel really happy and grateful that I won the award that I won, and I'm really grateful to all the teachers for nominating me for this award."

Yay, Hannah! (Schechter Instagram)

Junior Hannah Fineman received the University of Rochester Xerox Award for Innovation and Information Technology. The award is given to students who show a deep understanding and excel in engineering and technology courses. Fineman stated, "When I first got my award, I was very surprised and shocked because it wasn't an award that I applied for, but the school [Schechter] nominated me for it…. I was a little confused by the whole process of it. At first I was like, oh, I won an award. It was exciting. When I found out I got this award, I felt honored that my teachers chose me.... I think I was more proud that my teachers chose me for it than the actual award because I feel like teachers' approval is a satisfactory achievement."

Congrats, Yael! (Schechter Instagram)

Junior Yael Pedram won The University of Rochester Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony Award. This award is given to students who show great initiative in tackling community and world wide issues. Pedram stated, "I'm very happy about winning my award. I felt really grateful and honored that the teachers chose me to get this award. I have worked really hard to try to better our community in any way I can. One of my favorite aspects of this award is that it is pointed towards social justice. Especially now, as anti-semitism is a growing issue, I'm happy that I am able to take part in doing things like AJC, and I'm happy that the teachers are able to recognize that. Overall, I'm just really grateful for my award, and I will definitely take it with me in the future to help me move on to better things.”

Ellie Strachan is an editor for Paw Print Now and has been published on the site since November 2021. Ellie is currently a junior at the Schechter School of Long Island and can be reached at the following email address: estrachan25@schechterli.org.