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

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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.

amarra@pbpost.com

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2019: Former Dreyfoos student, Pathfinder award winner gets first novel published

Gina Marie Guadagnino, a former Dreyfoos student and Pathfinder Award winner, has
just had her first novel, “The Parting Glass,” published. (Photo by L.M. Pane)

Former Dreyfoos student, Pathfinder award winner gets first novel published

By Adriana Delgado

In 2000, Dreyfoos School of the Arts senior and Palm Beach Gardens resident Gina Marie Guadagnino was one of a selected group of students bestowed with the coveted Pathfinders Award, the annual high school scholarship awards for Palm Beach and Martin County students, sponsored by The Palm Beach Post.

Guadagnino, then 18, won the award in the Literature category, and in an interview she gave to The Post at the time, she expressed that “she had never stopped writing from the moment she could.”

Flash forward to 2019. Guadagnino, now in her 30’s, lives in New York City, the mecca of the publishing industry and works in the office of the president at NYU. In addition, her debut novel, “The Parting Glass,” has just been published by Simon and Schuster.

As any author knows, it’s a long road to publishing, but Guadagnino had her mind set on becoming a professional writer from the time she was in middle school in Palm Beach County.

“During my first year at Dreyfoos, they announced that they had several Pathfinder nominees, and I had no idea what that was,” Guadagnino said. “But the minute I started asking and delving into it, I thought ‘I want the Pathfinder Award in Literature when I’m a senior,’ and that was something I actively worked towards.

“I was interested in creative writing, even though I was in the theater department, so I had to take a lot of crossover classes in communication, poetry and short stories and then in my own department I did playwriting. When they discontinued playwriting classes, I took an independent study with Keith Young, who was a teacher there, and he sort of held a private playwriting class for me. He was truly an inspirational person.”

Guadagnino also explains that while at Dreyfoos, she worked tirelessly with her English teachers, who were mostly the nominating group for the Pathfinders in Literature award.

“I told every teacher I had that this was something I was looking forward to doing,” Guadagnino said. “From 9th grade on, I would go to my teachers with short stories, poems, anything I was writing and asked if they had time to give me feedback.”

When asked if she considered the Pathfinders as a head start to her writing career, Guadagnino said that winning the award gave her confidence in her abilities as a writer, and made her want to persevere.

“Having that recognition at such an early and critical time in my life, made a huge difference, because the pathway to publishing a novel is not easy,” Guadagnino explained. “It’s absolutely fraught with rejection. A statistic I love to tell people is that I sent out 181 query letters to agents, and I only got one offer of representation.”

She went on to say that the incredibly supportive atmosphere at Dreyfoos made her believe she could be a writer. “There is something worthwhile in continuing to pursue your dreams and be tenacious,” Guadagnino said.

She was a “fairly eclectic reader” in high school, with a fondness for Mark Twain and Shakespeare. Guadagnino also delved into Margaret Atwood, Jane Austen and ultimately Tolkien when she started reading fantasy.

Guadagnino says that authors who have influenced her as writers range from Lyndsay Faye to Jo Baker, because she truly admires what these authors are doing with women and other marginalized characters in historical fiction.

She also mentions the Welsh novelist Sarah Waters as an important influence, which can be seen in her novel, “The Parting Glass,” an upstairs-downstairs story about Mary Ballard (who hides her real name, Maire O’Farren), a lady’s maid to high society debutante Charlotte Walden.

The relationship that develops between the two characters and the double lives that they indulge in, are evocative of Waters’s notable work, “Fingersmith.” The book has been getting good reviews, with Guadagnino being praised for both her historical research and her approach to exploring Maire’s sexuality and love affair with a prostitute.

Like Waters, the Victorian era is something that Guadagnino was keen to explore, but instead of 1800s Britain, she wanted to write a story set in New York, specifically in Washington Square.

“I had recently finished my MFA, and I was thinking about the people who would have lived in Washington Square originally,” Guadagnino explains. “The north side has these beautiful old federal brick townhouses, and my original thought was to do a kind of examination about the people who would live in one such house.”

She freely admits that the PBS series “Downton Abbey” had recently begun, and she started to think that it would be interesting to do a similar concept in a New York townhome, in a period like the 1830’s when there was so much diversity in the serving classes.

“My own ancestors came from Ireland in the 1850s, in the post-famine diaspora,” Guadagnino said. “Right away the idea of Maire came to me as someone who is pretending to be something she isn’t. I wanted to see how far I could take that concept, how many subsumed and nested identities I could explore.”

Guadagnino remembers being fascinated by her research into the relationships between a lady’s maid and the women they served, and how struck she was by the way the women were required to repress their own identities for their mistresses and extinguish their own desires and aspirations.

“I started to think what that would be like for someone who wasn’t just doing it as a job, but also who was completely obsessed with the person she’s serving.”

One of the novel’s main topics deals with the Irish immigrants that arrived in New York City in the middle of the 19th century. Guadagnino says that even though she started writing “The Parting Glass” during the Obama administration, she never could have envisioned the frequently hostile attitudes towards immigration.

“The rhetoric around it is so violent that I see direct echoes in my research with the way the Irish were treated,” Guadagnino said. “I think it’s important we remember that everyone who lives in this country is because of immigration, either voluntary or forced. The idea that people who are trying to seek amnesty are somehow criminals, is a deep, deep betrayal of our cultural roots.”

With her novel published, she is now embarking on a book tour, which includes a book signing event at Palm Beach Bookstore on April 27. And Guadagnino is hard at work on her next book, which she refers to as “a reverse Gothic novel.”

“The characters are set by all these fantastic events,” she says. “It’s like a Scooby Doo episode, but instead of pulling off the mask and finding a perfectly rational explanation for everything, I’m trying to write the reverse, where the characters are so reasonable and level headed that they can’t possibly fathom that everything around them is so much more wilder and crazier than they could possibly imagine.”

IF YOU GO

What: Gina Marie Guadagnino Q&A and book signing

When 7 p.m. Saturday, April 27

Where: Palm Beach Bookstore, 215 Royal Poinciana Way, Palm Beach.

adelgado@pbdailynews.com

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2018: Students find winning at 35th Pathfinder Awards ‘surreal’

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Robert Linck of Oxbridge Academy accepts the $4,000 scholarship for Academic Excellence from Patrick Franklin at the 35th annual Pathfinder Scholarship Awards. (Allen Eyestone / The Palm Beach Post)

Students find winning at 35th annual Pathfinder Awards ‘surreal’

WEST PALM BEACH —
They were novelists and scientists, playwrights and polyglots. Teenagers all, they gathered Thursday to bask in the collective glow of their supersized achievements at the 2018 Pathfinder High School Scholarship Awards.

Each year, the event, sponsored by The Palm Beach Post, is an awe-inspiring get-together of the region’s most impressive high school students. This year – the annual event’s 35th iteration – was no exception.

Tim Burke, The Post’s publisher, kicked off the event by giving the graduating seniors “some grown-up advice” while citing achievements from the students themselves.

“Tonight, I would like to try something a little different. I would like to point to some of the examples you have set,” said Burke. “You undoubtedly have set an example for generations to come about how to multitask and communicate on five or six platforms at once.”

Burke went on to joke, “so, keep on texting even as I’m talking,” which drew laughter from the crowd. Then the awards were under way as “the best of the best,” as Burke described the 600 scholars, waited to see if they were winners.

Take Robert Linck, the Oxbridge Academy senior who won the evening’s “Academic Excellence” award.

In addition to rigorous coursework and a top national ranking as a debater, he spent two years studying the effect of malfunctioning septic systems on algae growth in Florida estuaries. Interning at a biotechnology research laboratory, he became one of the first researchers to use a particular spectroscopic technique to study water.

His teacher says he already writes at a graduate-student level and that he “is the most exceptional student I have ever taught.”

Or take Carlos Rivera, the Atlantic High senior who won the evening’s “Communications” award. He has written two self-published historical novels – including one he began as a fourth-grader – and is working on a third.

He wrote and produced an amateur film and then a shorter prequel to it. And he publishes regular video essays about famous films.

Out of 561 nominees in Palm Beach and Martin counties, 54 students were recognized in 18 categories ranging from literature and art to science and athletics.

Rivera was all smiles as he held his award close to him as he walked off stage. In that second, he said he felt “frightened.”

“I can’t feel my legs. I think I’m going to fall,” said Rivera. “I am just so excited. This is such an honor.”

First-place winners won $4,000 scholarships, with $3,000 and $2,500 scholarships awarded to second- and third-place winners, respectively.

The honored students accepted their awards to applause in the glitz and pomp of a packed Kravis Center auditorium.

Veronica Washington, a Park Vista High student, did not join her school’s chorus until her junior year but quick shined as a vocalist. That year, she received “best of show” and a critics’ choice award at a thespian festival competition.

She has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York and at Walt Disney World. She also choreographs dances for her church, participates on a debate team and teaches Sunday school classes.

“To me it is more than entertainment,” she wrote in her Pathfinders application letter. “It is a revolutionary tool that can be used to spread unity.”

Right before the award ceremony Washington said, “I’m so excited. It would be incredible if I won.”

Kailey Graziotto of The Benjamin School founded a writing club that performs and produces award-winning writing.

She wrote and produced her own play. She worked with a musician to create a musical arrangement for a spoken poem. Her teacher called her “the glue that holds the Benjamin Arts together.”

But as Graziotto wrote in her application letter, she sees her writing passion as part of an evolving journey.

“Though I have no idea where this path will lead in the long run, my ultimate goal will always be to write work that serves as a catalyst for social change,” she wrote.

Graziotto said that she “thought there is no chance” she would win. “It’s so surreal, so, so surreal,” said Graziotto. “I can’t believe that I was chosen. I am so happy.”

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2017: Post’s high school Pathfinders out to change the world: How they’ll do it

Post’s high school Pathfinders out to change world: How they’ll do it

The high school seniors who rose to the top of the Pathfinder Scholarship Awards announced Wednesday night have not only secured bragging rights for their academic careers to date, they are poised to represent the region for years to come.

LeeAnn Hewitt has plans to compete in the next summer Olympics. Sabrina Ginsberg aspires to become a doctor to NASA astronauts. Celinie Nguyen is on track to crack the grip of world hunger with a nutrient-packed gel for the soil. And Gregory (Terrell) Seabrooks, one of the nation’s leading debaters, has his sights set on the White House.

Not to belittle what the winners have already accomplished.

Classical piano player Jada Campbell performed twice at Carnegie Hall. Mark Heatzig built a drone photography business that serves dozens of Realtor clients. And Shantanu Jakhete had his mosquito research published in a national medical journal.

These students were among 69 soon-to-be graduates from Palm Beach and Martin counties honored for their accomplishments at the 34th annual Pathfinders Scholarship Awards ceremony at the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach.

Since their inception, the awards, sponsored by The Palm Beach Post, have handed out more than $2.85 million to more than 2,300 students.

Each year, that includes 54 students in public and private schools who earn prizes in 18 categories. First place winners in each category take home $4,000 scholarships. Second-place finalists get $3,000, while third-place finalists earn $2,500. Additional scholarships were also handed out, bringing the awards total Wednesday night to $209,000.

Not surprisingly, they are an articulate bunch, sometimes speaking a language even some adults would find challenging.

“I was intrigued by how a simple first order differential equation (Newton’s Law of Cooling) could accurately model the temperatures of a cooling body or how the simple Beer’s Law and colorimeter could almost perfectly predict concentration of an unknown substance,” wrote Boca High’s Yuria Utsumi, winner in mathematics. She wants to combine her growing math, computing and business skills to make the financial industry more efficient.

Others are to the point.

“I hope to become the strongest woman in the world for powerlifting by age 19,” said LeeAnn Hewitt, who landed the top honor in sports. Hewitt already holds 12 International Powerlifting Federation World Records. Just months ago, she benched 270 pounds and lifted 235 pounds in the clean-and-jerk. Hewitt is no academic slouch, ranking in the top 3 percent of her Wellington High School class.

And others are dreamers.

Reid Champlin, winner in the history and political science category, has mingled with leaders on the world stage including advisers to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and aides to the French ambassador to the U.S. He’s worked on a successful campaign to land the first black judge on Palm Beach County’s court. And he watched as his candidate Hillary Clinton fell short of her presidential aspirations. And he’s a soccer ref. His stated goal:

“Walls still stand between us. I want to help tear them down and watch as the partitions give way to a stronger world.”

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