Alumni Spotlight
Marc, a 2009 graduate of OHS, is now a sophomore at Stanford. He is planning to major in math, but sometimes leans towards computer science. It’s hard to choose because there are so many interesting course offerings. The classes are not the only interesting part of life at Stanford. The friends he has made both in his dorm, Freshman-Sophomore College, and in his classes have really enriched his experience.
Freshman-Sophomore College or FroSoCo as it is known on campus, has a very academic feel to it. Professors dine with the residents and many of the social events have an academic flavor. The cafeteria is also considered one of the best on campus. Students must fill out an application including essays to live in this dorm. About 10% of students who apply are chosen.
Math Club meetings, called Math Teas, are a big part of Marc’s life. The meetings always start with tea and serious discussion of math problems but quickly disintegrate into marathon sessions of games. The favorite right now is called Mao Set. Saturday mornings, I always find lots of pictures of SET cards arranged in strange ways on Marc’s Facebook page. Under them, there are comments that I don’t understand. I’m so glad he has found a group of people who like the same things he does.
Marc with his sister Constanza (OHS 2016).
Marc could not have been better prepared for Stanford. He breezed through all his classes last year. He wanted to petition to add more classes to his schedule after the first trimester, but we convinced him to hold back on that. I thought maybe they went easy on first trimester freshmen. The second and third trimesters held no surprises.
Our family was happily surprised when he received a letter in August informing him that he had been chosen for a President’s Award for Academic Excellence in the Freshman Year. During the Sophomore Celebration, the opening ceremony for sophomores, about 60 students were so honored.
Another happy surprise came in an email before classes started. He had been chosen to be a grader for one of the math classes he had taken last year. He has really enjoyed the job and, of course, the extra money it brings.
This year has brought more challenges than last year. One class in particular, Machine Learning, has been a source of stress. And it was during one of the phone calls I’ve had with him about the project he is working on, that we both realized how thankful we are for the way OHS taught him to persevere in the face of difficulty and really strengthened his character. Not knowing how to help him in his frustration with this project, I asked him if he had ever felt this horrible before. He said yes - a DFRL [OHS Core course, Democracy, Freedom, and the Rule of Law] paper, the only thing he ever turned in late. We talked through the experience again, especially all the good that had come from it: realizing that he could ask for help, realizing he didn’t have all the answers, realizing that you could mess up and start over again and it wouldn’t be the end of the world. I’m happy to say he got over the hump, the project is almost finished and he is looking forward to coming home in a few weeks.