Tate Edward Wilhelm, a graduating senior from Canadian High School, was named one of 627 semifinalists for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program.
He also recently won a National Merit Scholarship of $2,500, underwritten by 1970 Merit Scholar William L. Cameron, Jr.
The Presidential Scholars program was founded in 1964 to recognize some of the nation’s most distinguished graduating seniors for their accomplishments in academics, leadership, and service to school and community.
Wilhelm said he applied for the program called Presidential Scholars months ago and kind of forgot about it because he was applying for several programs and scholarship opportunities.
“It’s been like five months ago since I filled out that application, so it just escaped my head until I got an email the other day that said, ‘Congratulations, you’ve been selected as a semifinalist’,” he said.
“You have to apply within each state to be selected by that state to be nominated to the National Department of Education,” Wilhelm said recently in an interview.
“Then, from there, they pick the semifinalists for Presidential Scholars Program,” he said. “I’ve been picked as a semifinialist, which means it’s 600 out of 5,000.”
The finalists will be named in the coming months. He said the scholars program was offered by the Texas Department of Education on behalf of the President.
The honor has much to do with extra-curricular programs, according to Wilhelm, who has plenty. The young student has been running Canadian Technology, where he did I.T. for local businesses.
Wilhelm built a network infrastructure for a hotel renovation in town a couple years ago, along with being involved in National Honor Society as president and as class president. He said he is also involved in 4-H and programs for kids and national level work.
The Canadian youth was also selected for a program called MITES introduction to engineering and science, and over the summer, he took classes online in machine learning and calculus. He was selected for another program called Lincoln Laboratory Radar Introduction (LLRISE), where he was taken to a federally funded research development center for two weeks and built a little radar, which he said was very interesting.
Wilhelm said he would be attending MIT in the fall and originally applied under the artificial intelligence program, but he believes he’ll now be pursuing the computer science degree and molecular biology interdisciplinary major.
“So, I would be doing both biology and computer science, which is a pretty advancing field,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Canadian High senior earns multiple honors on his way to MIT
Reporting by Nell Williams, Amarillo Globe-News / Amarillo Globe-News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
