Joshua Dong '17 holds his President's Environmental Youth Award in the halls of the White House in August.
news
In August, hours before greeting students at Convocation, Student Government President Joshua Dong ’17 was honored at the White House with a President’s Environmental Youth Award. The honor, recognizing 18 teachers and 63 students from across the country for their outstanding contributions to environmental education and stewardship, were awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Dong was recognized for his work on creating a more efficient, low cost, and environmentally friend method of improving water quality and reducing pollution, particularly the toxin TCDD.
A few days later, Dong returned to Washington, D.C. to attend the three-day Coolidge Senators Washington Summit, a youth leadership event in which students visit the White House, U.S. Capitol, and U.S. Supreme Court and meet with national leaders.
Meanwhile, Dong’s peers at the Research Science Institute held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this past summer voted him a “Rickoid of the Year,” a prestigious recognition of academic acumen and personal demeanor. Also receiving the honor was Kathy Liu of West High School in Salt Lake City, Utah. The six-week institute, offered by the Center for Excellence in Education, is an internationally recognized program for high school academic achievers in STEM fields. Alumni of the program are known as “Rickoids,” after the late Admiral H.G. Rickover, who co-founded CEE.
Research Science Institute is offered at no cost to students competitively selected to attend. Funding for the program comes from corporations, foundations, individuals and U.S. government agencies.