America's Real Dream Team

Tom Friedman wrote a pro-immigration column yesterday.  He talks about attending an important dinner he recently attended.  He reveals the names of the honorees and writes:

Linda Zhou, Alice Wei Zhao, Lori Ying, Angela Yu-Yun Yeung, Lynnelle Lin Ye, Kevin Young Xu, Benjamin Chang Sun, Jane Yoonhae Suh, Katheryn Cheng Shi, Sunanda Sharma, Sarine Gayaneh Shahmirian, Arjun Ranganath Puranik, Raman Venkat Nelakant, Akhil Mathew, Paul Masih Das, David Chienyun Liu, Elisa Bisi Lin, Yifan Li, Lanair Amaad Lett, Ruoyi Jiang, Otana Agape Jakpor, Peter Danming Hu, Yale Wang Fan, Yuval Yaacov Calev, Levent Alpoge, John Vincenzo Capodilupo and Namrata Anand.

No, sorry, it was not a dinner of the China-India Friendship League. Give up?

O.K. All these kids are American high school students. They were the majority of the 40 finalists in the 2010 Intel Science Talent Search, which, through a national contest, identifies and honors the top math and science high school students in America, based on their solutions to scientific problems. The awards dinner was Tuesday, and, as you can see from the above list, most finalists hailed from immigrant families, largely from Asia.

Continuing with Happy Week, we’re doing something right.  Or maybe to give credit where credit is due: many of us are doing something right.  The Intel Science Talent Search is a great competition because it encourages kids to find solutions.  This is something to be happy about.

Related posts:

1. MMA in High Schools
2. Race and Specialized NY High Schools
3. Assembling the Team and 2010 Resolutions
4. King's Dream Realized?
5. They never asked me