Young scholarship

Announcement for 2023 Scholarship Application

CACPA is accepting 2023 Young Scholar Award applications now. The award will be granted to high school students who have demonstrated outstanding achievements in their schools or communities. Applicant qualification: 1. Be United States citizens or permanent residents (green card holder). 2. Be high school students who are graduating in 2024 or 2025 and plan on enrolling full-time into a four-year college or university in the United States. Application materials: 1. SAT or ACT test results 2. High school GPA 3. Award & achievement lists in high school 4. Application assay 5. Two recommendation letters (at least one from high school teachers) All materials must be submitted to cosmetic2022@cacpausa.org by Oct 15th, 2023.

Congratulations To Awardees, Arissa Zheng, Of 2022 CACPA Young Scientist Award

Arissa Zheng is a senior at Half Hollow Hills High School West. She is a High Honor Roll student and recipient of the Yale Book Award, AP Capstone Diploma, AP Scholar with Distinction Award, and National Merit Commended Scholar Award. Additionally, she is President of Tri-M Music Honor Society, and a member of National Honor Society, National Art Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta Honor Society, and Science National Honor Society. In addition to her schoolwork, she takes college-level courses through the Columbia Science Honors Program, where she studied graduate-level organic chemistry, biochemistry, classical and quantum computing devices, and algorithms under professors and researchers at Columbia University and conducted literature research with peers and presented projects to Columbia faculty such as the “Effect of Memantine, an Anti-Alzheimer’s Drug, on Rodent Microglial Cells in Vitro” and “Pheromone Types and Isolation Techniques.” 

Arissa is highly involved in her school’s STEM programs. She has also served as Vice President, Secretary, Head of Build, and Head of Engineering Notebook for the FTC Robotics Club, where she also organized a virtual STEM summer camp during the pandemic for local elementary students and teaches engineering design workshops at school and at the local library. Her robotics team has also won multiple regional awards such as the Think Award for application of calculus-based physics for robot projectiles. Additionally, she is the Vice President of the Science Olympiad Club, where she is a three-time regional medalist and has qualified for the state competition.  

Furthermore, Arissa is involved in the humanities. As President of Tri-M Music Honor Society, she has organized many fundraiser concerts at nursing homes, bookstores, etc. and has helped donate music supplies and food to her school community. She is also Assistant Concertmaster of the Long Island Youth Orchestra, where she leads peers in performing symphonic works by Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saens, Gershwin, and others. Additionally, Arissa participates in visual arts. She recently received the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Silver Key for Painting, Suffolk County Art Leaders Association All-County Honorable Mention in Drawing, as well as multiple local gallery features. In addition, Arissa has studied multiple foreign languages: French, Mandarin, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese. She most recently received 2nd Place in the National Francophone Cultural Trivia Competition where she competed against 20,000 high school and undergraduate students in cultural aspects of French-speaking countries and has received multiple gold medals in the National French Exam. She has also led many cultural activities in her school through her positions as Vice President of the Student Executive Council, President of the Asian Club, and Vice President of Coffee & Conversations, a school club dedicated to encouraging students, faculty, and administrators to discuss politics and current events in an open-minded setting.

Lastly, Arissa is strongly involved in volunteerism. After conducting data analysis for multiple biomedical research projects, she received the Congressional Award Gold Medal and Congressional Award STEM Star. Arissa co-founded MyriEd, a student-led organization that has provided 55 free, live, virtual courses for 1000+ students internationally in grades K-12 ranging from ballet to biochemistry. She managed 100+ student teaching volunteers and marketing/business strategy interns and collaborated with student groups at UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UC Davis, and Chapman University to provide free college admissions advice and financial literacy webinars to socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Furthermore, she reached an audience of 100,000+ through digital marketing strategies and taught courses in philosophical logic, music theory, and drawing. 

Congratulations To Awardees, Julie Liu, Of 2022 CACPA Sino-Lion Sustainability Award

Julie Liu is a senior at Princeton High School (PHS) in New Jersey. She has an inquisitive mind, is dedicated to learning, and has achieved academic excellence in the rigorous high school academic curricula she has chosen. After completing the highest-level math classes offered by PHS in her junior year, Julie was accepted to take a math class at Princeton University in her senior year. Passionate about STEM, Julie has cultivated a profound appreciation for the beauty of sciences and their impact on the society. She participated in self-led and team research projects at PHS, including the research on how to turn food wastes to useful products using the black soldier fly. Her team at PHS is one of the three Samsung Solve For Tomorrow 2022 National Winners (winning $100,000 prize for the school), and also a winner of the Samsung Solve For Tomorrow 2022 Employee Choice Award (winning $10,000 prize for the school). She joined her team to present on behalf of her school to industrial executives and the media in New York City.

Julie is a recipient of 2021 AP Scholar with Honor and 2022 AP Scholar with Distinction.  Having served on the editorial board of the award-winning PHS student newspaper, The Tower, throughout her high school years, Julie is now serving as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper. Julie received the 2022 PHS Gold Key Award in her Junior year for her outstanding services to the school community. Julie also won the Columbia Scholastic Press Association Silver Award and Columbia Scholastic Press Association Digital Journalism 3rd place and was a Celebrating 2019 Fall Top Ten winner.

Julie enjoys helping others and applying her knowledge and skills to community services. Among numerous other community activities, with a passion in art, Julie volunteered at the Arts Council of Princeton to assist teachers’ art classes and help tutor young children. In summer of 2020, Julie volunteered at a non-profit youth organization, Asian Youth Act, as the Director and collaborated with a team of individuals across the world for racial justice awareness through Instagram social media. In her junior year, she actively participated in a leadership program at the Corner House, a non-profit organization with a mission to prevent and treat alcohol and drug addictions by engaging and supporting youth, adults, and families in life-long healthy living and recovery, and she worked with her team to develop impactful workshops for elementary and middle schools in Princeton area. In her senior year, Julie has joined the PHS Peer Group in leading activities to foster a safe and inclusive environment for freshmen. In addition, since 2021, Julie has also been working at a grocery store frequented by local elderly customers, the Whole Earth Center, to help customers maintain a normal safe life during the Covid pandemic.

Congratulations To Awardees, Tinghan Wang, Of 2022 CACPA Excellent Award

Tinghan Wang is a junior at Acton-Boxborough RHS. She is currently the Co-Captain of her school’s speech and debate team, as well as a writer for her school’s newspaper. This summer, Tinghan participated in an internship at the University of Rhode Island, where she is listed as an author in the resultant paper. In her free time, she loves to paint, play chess, and sew clothes.