2020 Pathfinder Nominees

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2020: Pathfinder winners already paving way to brighter future

Maliyah White, 18, of Dreyfoos School of the Arts, is recorded for a Pathfinders video March 4. [LANNIS WATERS/palmbeachpost.com]
2020 Pathfinder winners already paving way to brighter future
Here are the winners for the Class of 2020.
By Sonja Isger
More than 500 of the region’s standout high school seniors wrapped all of their academic, artistic, athletic and civic accomplishments into packets just months ago and asked to be counted among the Class of 2020′s elite — to be named a Pathfinder.
Then, just weeks after being grilled by judges in their respective fields, a pandemic swept the globe, pitching their proms, canceling their celebrations and forcing their graduations to be recast for video viewing.
The 37th annual Pathfinder Scholarship Awards ceremony had to switch gears as well.
Since their inception, the awards sponsored by The Palm Beach Post have celebrated soon-to-be graduates from Palm Beach and Martin counties, handing out more than $3.2 million in scholarships to more than 2,450 students.
This year, 54 students earned first, second and third prizes in 18 categories, laying claim to $171,000 in scholarships.
While there was no red-carpet or Kravis Center stage moment, the Pathfinders recognized Wednesday during an online broadcast have proved they can power through the difficult and make hay of most obstacles.
They’ve got this.
Olympic Heights student Francois Khouri survived a childhood punctuated by missile strikes in Syria, fueling a curiosity about political science. His pursuit landed him internships with both the Florida Democratic Party and two local Republican congressional campaigns. Winner in the category of History and Political Science, Khouri is sharing his passion with thousands of YouTube viewers a month through his Political Discourse for Dummies channel.
Repeated family visits to India exposed Science winner Rohan Jakhete to the scourge of poverty and water insecurity. As a student at South Fork High, he developed tools — one patent pending — to purify the polluted and manage the meager. He’s the founder and CEO of two start-ups.
The intersection of invention and water also paid off for Sophia Lloyd George. The Oxbridge Academy student’s work to translate data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and her use of crowdsourcing to map algae caught attention in the Computer Science category.
But her resume, too, is girded by success over adversity. Inspired by an older brother with autism, Lloyd George convinced doubting adults to let her teach computer science to children with the disorder. Her nonprofit, Code Autism, was further propelled by a $14,000 grant.
Park Vista High’s Noah Cabarcas was just looking for fun when he turned learning a new language into a sport with young friends: Who can master another tongue in the shortest amount of time?
But as others lost interest, Cabarcas found new purpose, seeking to better connect with his best friend, a transplant from Brazil.
Tapping YouTube, Duolingo and the international pop music scene, Cabarcas cracked Portuguese well enough to chat with his friend’s family in eight months. He went on to master Italian — that’s what you do when family arrives from Italy for the summer. And French — it began with a class and then took off when a student from the country arrived on campus. The Pathfinder in Foreign Language also speaks Spanish and is chipping away at Japanese and Russian.
“It’s heartening and inspiring to know that our Pathfinders have the qualities that will enable our country not only to emerge from today’s unprecedented crisis, but be better prepared to face similar challenges in the future,″ Palm Beach Post Executive Editor Nick Moschella said. “They are leaders and scholars, driven to succeed and serve their communities with compassion and vision.″
The credentials amassed by this year’s Pathfinders would be the envy of most adults.
In addition to building academic transcripts that rarely, if ever, see anything below a B, they are the editors of their school newspapers and yearbooks; they lead debate clubs, language clubs and clubs for computer coding. Dreyfoos School of the Arts student Elizabeth Sinn has placed second in the Steinway Junior Piano Competition for two years running. Her classmate, Jacqueline Kaskel was a semifinalist in the New York Lyric Opera Theatre Competitions. Jensen Beach High student Sandra Edwards played in the women’s under-19 lacrosse world championships (as a recruit and leader for a nascent Team China, thanks to a grandfather’s bloodline).
Even their spare time is superlative-worthy. Among them, they hold black belts in taekwondo, teach chess, play performance level harp.
And they aspire to do so much more.
At Glades Central, Fabio Louis will be the first in his family to graduate high school and is poised to have his associate’s degree in hand by December. The grandson of Haitians who raised cattle and banana trees and the winner in the Vocational Education category, Louis has set his sights on the science of agriculture. He wants to help solve world hunger.
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2020 Pathfinders

Academic Excellence
Winner
Subhash Kantamneni
Suncoast High School
Subhash is Academic Excellence. Earning A’s in all his classes at Suncoast while taking 20 AP classes and a staggering 13 dual enrollment courses at Palm Beach State College, Subhash is ranked #1 in his class. He earned a perfect score on the ACT and a 1570 on the SAT. He received perfect scores on all AP Physics C exams – an unprecedented achievement – and is a National Merit Semifinalist. He won first place in the Palm Beach County Science Fair for his project on characterizing stars. Subhash will study science at MIT, and eventually earn a Ph.D. in physics. His desire is to specialize in the field of nuclear astrophysics and study nuclear fusion processes in stars.

Academic Excellence
2nd Place
Anish Ravichandran
American Heritage School

Academic Excellence
3rd Place
Vivian Powell
Jensen Beach High School

Art
Winner
Antonio Caleca
Park Vista High School
Antonio’s influences in architecture include Le Corbusier and his designs combine aesthetic grace and daring propelled by sustainability principles. Already an accomplished musician and experienced tutor/teacher, he is an individual of remarkable talent and civic engagement. Antonio will attend Cooper Union in Manhattan, study Arts in Architecture, and open his own design and architecture studio.

Art
2nd Place
Mia Palomba
Dreyfoos School of Arts

Art
3rd Place
Keyi Che
The King's Academy

Business
Winner
Carlos Urdaneta
American Heritage School
Carlos is an inquisitive and diligent student whose greatest strengths are perseverance and his ability to remain focused. He also has a heart for serving people. One of his ventures, called Supplies X Change, provides school supplies to students in third world countries. He co-founded Next Level Mentorship. Its main purpose is to mentor middle school students with the skills and knowledge that are necessary to succeed in life. Carlos will attend Babson College and ultimately work in his family’s business.

Business
2nd Place
Arina Shalobodova
Boca Raton High School

Business
3rd Place
Charles Drucker
John I. Leonard High School

Communications
Winner
Brianna Luberisse
Inlet Grove High School
Brianna flawlessly jumped into Journalism her freshman year. She earned the title of Editor in Chief for Inlet Grove’s Newspaper, Grove Watch. In her subsequent years, she became the most prolific writer, editor, photographer and videographer in the history of Inlet Grove. She is Senior Class President, President of the yearbook, Basketball and Football team manager and holds a part-time job. As her instructor writes: “ her record is exhaustive, her possibilities endless” Brianna plans to major in Multimedia Journalism and Criminal Justice.

Communications
2nd Place
Benjamin Schiller
Saint Andrew's School

Communications
3rd Place
Parker Barry
Wellington High School

Community Involvement
Winner
Adryena Flores
American Heritage School
Adryena is compelled to help others. Her compassion for others is the driving force behind Little Angels Tutoring program. She created this program to provide free tutoring service to ESOL students in the areas of reading and math. The Palm Beach County Philanthropy Tank awarded a $12,000 prize to Adryena. She will use these funds to purchase iPads for the students to build their knowledge of technology. Adryena hopes to pursue a major in political science with the goal of attending law school.

Community Involvement
2nd Place
Hayden Siesel
Spanish River High School

Community Involvement
3rd Place
Isabella Martinez
Seminole Ridge High School

Computer Science
Winner
Sophia Lloyd George
Oxbridge Academy
Sophia is an outstanding students whose hard work knows no bounds. She enrolled in an incredibly demanding course of study in which she consistently averaged A+ on all her honors assessments. She ranked #3 in her class and scored a 35 on the ACT. Inspired to help her autistic older brother, Sophia runs her own non-profit titled:"Code Autism" where she teaches local autistic children computer science skills. The Palm Beach County Philanthropy Tank awarded her $14,000 to fund this program. Sophia intends to pursue a double Major in Computer Science and Science, Technology and Society.

Computer Science
2nd Place
Christina Kohlbeck
Palm Beach Central High School

Computer Science
3rd Place
Kevin Ray
Dreyfoos School of the Arts

Drama
Winner
Hayden Sikora
Saint Andrew's School
Hayden is a gifted actor who excels on stage and in the classroom. On stage, in 2019, Hayden earned superior ratings for monologues, duet scene and duet musical at the Thespian Competition. He played leading and supporting roles in Saint Andrew’s theater productions all four years of high school. He is also captain of the varsity wrestling team and is ranked 10th in the state for his weight class. He plans to attend Northwestern University and study Theatre.

Drama
2nd Place
Jessica Balton
West Boca Raton High School

Drama
3rd Place
Victoria Lobdell
Palm Beach Central High School

Foreign Language
Winner
Noah Cabarcas
Park Vista High School
Noah has a sincere love of language and sees languages as a bridge between two cultures. He learned multiple languages, some independently, including Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French and a little Japanese. He’s earned his AICE Diploma with Merit and the AP Scholar Award. He is President of the French and Spanish Honor Societies and a star varsity volleyball player. Noah plans to get a bachelor degree in Political Science with a minor in French and Spanish.

Foreign Language
2nd Place
Caroline de Paula
American Heritage School

Foreign Language
3rd Place
Amanda Howard
Saint Andrew's School

Forensics/Speech
Winner
Kevin Ahern
Dreyfoos School of the Arts
Kevin earned numerous awards, from the local and national level for his outstanding forensic performances. His most noteworthy forensics accomplishment to date was becoming “National Champion in Duo Interpretation” at the 2019 National Speech and Debate Associations National Tournament. Kevin is president of the Speech and Debate team at Dreyfoos School of the Arts. He is editor of the yearbook and Senior Class Vice President. Most importantly, he is a leader, a mentor and an advocate. He plans to pursue a career in political communication and advocacy.

Forensics/Speech
2nd Place
Eleni Mercer
Jupiter High School

Forensics/Speech
3rd Place
Alexander Goetschius
Oxbridge Academy

History/Political Science
Winner
Francois Khouri
Olympic Heights High School
Francois spent much of his childhood in Syria, amongst missile strikes and unrest. As a young boy he was always questioning the cause of the constant disasters and the answer was always Politics. After immigrating to America his passion grew for Political Science, particularly Comparative Middle Eastern Politics. He created an online political platform – Political Discourse for Dummies.Com, which accrues several thousand views monthly. During most of his high school career, Francois has held an intern position with the Florida Democratic Party. He plans to major in Political Science and Accounting

History/Political Science
2nd Place
Sydney Levy
Boca Raton High School

History/Political Science
3rd Place
Mark Chin-Lenn
The King's Academy

Literature
Winner
Ralph Jeanty
Boca Raton High School
Ralph’s love for reading started in the library where he explored new worlds and discovered historical facts. Ralph is the founder and president of Boca Raton High School’s Ted-Ed club and he is a leader in both the English and Spanish honor societies. He is an active member of Propel, a non-profit that helps at-risk, low-income teens. It is his goal to teach them the importance of reading. Ralph is ranked in the top 3% of his class and plans to acquire a double major in Neuroscience and Philosophy..

Literature
2nd Place
Ashley Perry
Olympic Heights High School

Literature
3rd Place
Marcella Khaliq
Dreyfoos School of the Arts

Mathematics
Winner
Jason Katz
Boca Raton High School
Jason is a National Merit Semifinalist and a National AP Scholar. He scored a 1590 on his SAT and is in the top 2% of his class. As a top scorer on the A.I.C.E Math Exam his freshman year, Jason was able to skip AB Calculus and go into BC Calculus where he scored the top level of 5. He is a leader in Boca High’s award winning Science Olympiad team and a member of the National Honor Society. Jason plans to major in Electrical Engineering and minor in mathematics.

Mathematics
2nd Place
Joshua Kuffour
Suncoast High School

Mathematics
3rd Place
Benjamin Myers
Dreyfoos School of the Arts

Music/Instrumental
Winner
Elizabeth Sinn
Dreyfoos School of the Arts
Elizabeth is a gifted jazz and classical piano performance student. She was first alternate selected for Jazz Band of America and she won 2nd place in the Steinway Junior Piano Competition two years in a row. Elizabeth was on the Honor Roll for Straight A’s all through high school. She will attend the Berklee College of Music to pursue a degree in Jazz Piano Performance followed by a master’s degree and possible doctorate in music. She hopes to teach and mentor other musicians.

Music/Instrumental
2nd Place
Brandon Gunter
Clark Advanced Learning Center

Music/Instrumental
3rd Place
Abigail Bracken
Jensen Beach High School

Music/Vocal
Winner
Jacqueline Kaskel
Dreyfoos School of the Arts
Jacqueline is ranked in the top two percent of her class and has earned the AP Scholar with Distinction Award. As an aspiring opera singer, her voice teachers say she possesses an exceptionally beautiful voice of strength and refined musical expression. She has won a multitude of vocal awards. Most recently, Jackie was named National Semi-Finalist at the New York Lyric Opera Theatre Competition. She plans to study music with a concentration in vocal performance at Yale University.

Music/Vocal
2nd Place
Samara Shavrick
West Boca Raton High School

Music/Vocal
3rd Place
Zaskia Torres
Palm Beach Gardens High School

Reach for Excellence
Winner
Jacqueline Tabascio
Park Vista High School
Jacqueline overcame her learning disability by reading novels and newspaper articles related to medicine and science. She met with specialists during her early school years and trained for hours on reading comprehension and pronunciation. Reading books on a topic she loved led her to a quicker understanding. She is a member of the National Honor Society, National Science & Math Honor Societies, is dual enrolled at Palm Beach State College and has a part time job. She plans to pursue medicine as a doctor and focus on helping people lead healthier lives.

Reach for Excellence
2nd Place
Samuel Robbins
Martin County High School

Reach for Excellence
3rd Place
Gavin Angove
Boca Raton High School

Science
Winner
Rohan Jakhete
South Fork High School
Rohan is an Academic Powerhouse, according to his teachers. Ranked first in his class, He excels in all the most difficult classes offered at South Fork and then some. He is the founder and CEO of two startup companies, is Founder and President of South Fork’s coding club and a Coca Cola Scholars Semifinalist. What impresses his teachers the most is his desire to teach other students to love STEM as much as he does. He plans to major in mechanical engineering at CalTech and then earn a master’s degree in chemical engineering at MIT. He wants to change the world by developing solutions to water poverty.

Science
2nd Place
Glenn Grimmett
American Heritage School

Science
3rd Place
Eesha Shah
Spanish River High School

Sports
Winner
Sandra Edwards
Jensen Beach High School
Sandra fought hard through a broken ankle to excel at club lacrosse. A highlight of her lacrosse career was playing in the U19 Women’s Lacrosse World Championships in Canada. Her tenacity and Academic Achievements earned her an invitation to attend Central Michigan University as a Division 1 Lacrosse player. She is Student Government President and holds leadership positions in Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Young Life. Her career plans include attending law school to pursue a career as a criminal lawyer and return to Martin County to practice law..

Sports
2nd Place
Ashley Klein
Palm Beach Gardens High School

Sports
3rd Place
Seth Berke
Saint Andrew's School

Technical/Vocational/Agricultural
Winner
Fabio Louis
Glades Central High School
Fabio is in the top 10 percent of his senior class. He is a member of the National Honor Society, is a Borlaug Scholar (a part of the National Association of plant breeders), and a leader in Future Farmers of America with a passion for agriculture. He is bilingual in Haitian Creole and English and will be the first person in his family to graduate high school and attend college. Fabio will major in Horticultural Science to learn and explore new ways to bring food security to impoverished communities.

Technical/Vocational/Agricultural
2nd Place
Brandy Garcia Velasquez
Palm Beach Lakes High School

Technical/Vocational/Agricultural
3rd Place
Jennica Augustin
Santaluces High School
2019: Dreyfoos grad’s Pathfinder award for drama comes 35 years after dad won same prize

Chas Payson and Olivia Payson stand at the 2019 Pathfinder High School Scholarship Awards in May. The father and daughter each won the top prize for drama 35 years apart. [TIM STEPIEN/palmbeachpost.com]
Dreyfoos grad’s Pathfinder award for drama comes 35 years after dad won same prize
When Olivia Payson won the top prize for drama at this year’s Pathfinder High School Scholarship Awards, she took home the same honor her father, Chas Payson, won 35 years ago as a graduating senior at Benjamin.
By Sam Howard
JUPITER — Theater roots run deep in the Payson family.
Last month, Jupiter-area resident Olivia Payson won the top $4,000 scholarship in drama at the 2019 Pathfinder High School Scholarship Awards. It was the same honor her father, Chas Payson, won at the 1984 Pathfinder ceremony.
The Pathfinder Awards, organized by The Palm Beach Post, are presented each year to high school seniors in Palm Beach and Martin counties who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in 18 academic, vocational and athletic categories. The students are nominated by their schools.
“It’s been something really special for us,” said Olivia Payson, who graduated from Dreyfoos School of the Arts and plans to attend University of Oklahoma in the fall to earn a bachelor of fine arts in musical theater.

Her father, owner of Jupiter’s Echo Beach Studios, often regales her with stories of his involvement in shows, such as the Rodgers and Hammerstein hit “The King and I,” while growing up in Jupiter, Olivia Payson said. Although Chas Payson largely set aside his theater ambitions upon graduating from the Benjamin School 35 years ago, Olivia said he was a valuable critic while she rehearsed for college auditions in the family living room.
“My dad would say, ‘OK you’re a little pitchy here,’” Olivia Payson said. “It was great, he’d help me with that.”
His daughter’s win gave Chas Payson a chance to reflect on his own Pathfinder experience. His scholarship was worth about $2,500 and many students were unaware of the program, he said. When he was called into Benjamin’s library with other Pathfinder nominees, Chas Payson joked, “We all thought we were in trouble for something.”
Another difference: the talent pool among students today “is incredible,” he said. For him, theater was “kind of an excuse to goof off.” He still remembers his first role, playing a “bratty kid chased by a toy soldier” while in second grade. He can’t remember the name of the production at Stuart’s Barn Theatre, but recalled being drawn to the comedic aspect of the role.
See the story on PalmBeachPost.com
“I did it for laughs,” he said.
Acting has been a much more serious passion for his daughter, he said. Her first role was as Rope Twirler No. 1 in a production of “Annie Get Your Gun” at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre when she was 6. He has video footage of his daughter acting at home in her early childhood, and said her love for the stage was always apparent.
She was talented, too, her father said, and that made it even easier to support her. He calls her a “triple threat” because of her ability to sing, dance and act.
“If you have a talent for something, definitely why not pursue it?” Chas Payson said. “That was our belief all along.”
While theater president during her senior year at Dreyfoos, Olivia Payson said, she took part in productions of “Amélie,” “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” and “Cry-Baby.”
Her love for theater has grown over the years and she hopes that passion will someday turn into a profession. After college, she plans to move to New York to audition for “as many shows as possible.”
“I loved being on stage and getting a chance to express myself. … As I’ve gotten older that love has matured and changed,” Olivia Payson said.
There seems to be a natural inclination toward the performing arts in her family, Olivia Payson said. Her 15-year-old sister Catherine is a dancer at Dreyfoos and one of her grandmothers loved to dance and play piano, she said.
“My mom (Suzanne Payson) always talks about how there must be something in the Payson family blood,” she said.
showard@pbpost.com
@SamuelHHoward

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2019: These cancer-fighting, charity building teens didn’t wait for adulthood to think big

Pathfinder Awards 2019: These cancer-fighting, charity-building teens didn’t wait for adulthood to think big
Dozens of the region’s most outstanding high school seniors were recognized Tuesday at the 2019 Pathfinder High School Scholarship Awards.
By Andrew Marra
WEST PALM BEACH — They organized voter-registration drives, collected shoes for impoverished children, researched new ways to detect lung damage and breast cancer.
They studied contamination in Palm Beach County’s waterways and designed computer programs for predicting sea levels in the Gulf of Mexico.
And they still haven’t graduated high school.
For their outsize achievements, dozens of the region’s most outstanding high school seniors were honored Tuesday at the 2019 Pathfinder High School Scholarship Awards, a pomp-filled, bass-thumping ceremony at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.
The 36th annual event, organized by The Palm Beach Post, recognized 54 students for outstanding achievements in 18 categories, from drama and computer science to community involvement and literature.
The first-place winners were announced with a blast of pop music and shrieks of excitement from fellow students, then presented onstage with a trophy shaped as an astrolabe, an ancient tool used to navigate ships via the position of stars in the sky.
The honorees hailed from public and private high schools across Palm Beach and Martin counties, all united by an extraordinary passion for their particular interests.
Many winners were striking for the sheer precociousness of their achievements. Take Justin Wang, a Suncoast High School senior who took home the top award for mathematics.
He competes annually in math tournaments hosted by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has worked with Florida Atlantic University researchers on a computer model to forecast sea levels.
He proposed improvements to a computer algorithm that works to detect signs of breast cancer. And he has published research in four academic journals.
“His knowledge of the applications of mathematics surpasses that of any teenager I have ever worked with,” wrote Randal Oddi, the chair of Suncoast High’s mathematics department.
All the Pathfinder winners excelled in their studies, but none were merely excellent students. Winners distinguished themselves with the variety of their achievements and passions that extended beyond the classroom.
Natalie Navarrete, a Boca Raton High senior named the top winner in the academic excellence category, maintained straight A’s throughout high school and is poised to graduate at the top of her class.
In an essay, she wrote that she hopes to apply her wide range of interests to government policy-making in order “to craft and present unique solutions to the political problems facing our nation and the world today.”
See the story on PalmBeachPost.com
But Navarrete’s achievements were hardly limited to the classroom. At Boca Raton High, she was an award-winning member of the debate team and organized a club that registered students vote, then sent them into their communities to encourage others to vote.
Her commitment, her studiousness, her maturity and poise combine to make Navarrete “fearless and a born leader,” her teacher said.
“In a world where rendered resumes and constructed characters are commonplace, Natalie’s authenticity and humility is a gift,” Christina Hessing, a government and politics teacher at the school, wrote in a nominating letter.
For some of the evening’s winners, their passions took them beyond academics and into a world of service.
Joseph Rubsamen, a senior at Oxbridge Academy, visited Nicaragua as a boy and was shocked by the number of impoverished children and adults he saw who could not afford shoes.
Returning home, he started collecting used shoes and sneakers, and in 2014 he formed a non-profit organization, Shoes2You, to distribute them to people in need.
To date, Shoes2You has donated more than 15,000 pairs of shoes to needy people in Florida and four developing nations.
Along with his work at the nonprofit, Rubsamen organizes student volunteers to work at a local homeless shelter and has done research investigating the sources of bacterial fecal pollution in the county’s waterways.
Tuesday evening, he was awarded the top Pathfinder award for community involvement.
“Joseph is the kind of person who sincerely believes there is value when we all succeed,” wrote Teresa Thornton, an Oxbridge biology teacher, in a nominating letter.
All told, more than 500 students at nearly 50 high schools were nominated for the Pathfinder awards this year. The winners were selected by judges who reviewed nomination letters and applications and interviewed all the nominees.
Each of the 18 first-place winners receives a $4,000 scholarship, while second- and third-place winners receive scholarships worth $3,000 and $2,500, respectively.
Though there were just 18 first-place Pathfinder winners, just being among the more than 500 nominees was an honor in and of itself, Palm Beach Post Publisher Timothy Burke told the audience.
“You are officially part of a very select group of super scholars whose achievements amaze and inspire,” Burke said.