A Parker School senior is one of Hawaii’s two 2014 U.S. Presidential Scholars.
Lysha Matsunobu, 17, has attended the Waimea private school since the sixth grade. A Kailua-Kona resident, Matsunobu also attended Kahakai Elementary School. She plans to attend at Stanford University, where she is likely to study mechanical engineering and computer science.
Matsunobu said she arrived at school Monday morning and logged on to the award committee’s website to see if they had announced the winners.
“It was just all excitement,” she said.
She praised Parker School and its teachers, particularly English and history teacher Ruth Sturges, for the opportunities she had there.
“(Sturges) is just really an awesome teacher,” Matsunobu said. “I also feel like I learn so much from her, even if the work is really difficult.”
Sturges helps to make the topics relatable.
Parker’s academic structure has allowed Matsunobu to take on several independent study projects, including one this year combining computer programming and observational astronomy. For that project, she was paired with an observational astronomer at W.M. Keck Observatory, she said.
She also tackled an environmental science independent study project. She played four years of varsity tennis, is president of the school’s National Honor Society Chapter, is involved in the school’s new investment club and participated in other activities.
Sturges said Matsunobu is dedicated to academics, hardworking and good at balancing school with extracurricular activities.
“You could not have a more deserving student for this award,” Sturges said. “She has been a very conscientious student, really pushing herself intellectually.”
But Matsunobu doesn’t pursue academic excellence in a manner that pushes other students to the sidelines, Sturges said.
“She will hang back and wait until other people have spoken,” she said. “She will be quiet about what I know she already knows. Then she will quietly bring in some wonderful insight, or pose a question that changes the conversation.”
Parker School Headmaster Carl Sturges also noted Matsunobu’s humility, calling her a “wonderful student.”
This is the second year in a row the small school has had a student selected as a U.S. Presidential Scholar. The program, in its 50th year, selects one boy and one girl from each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and from U.S. families living abroad, as well as 15 chosen at-large and 20 U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts.
