An Ivy League future awaits Moscow High School senior

Moscow High School senior Jieyan Wang never considered applying to Ivy League Schools until last year.

After completing the SAT with a 1550 out of 1600 maximum points and applying to Princeton, Harvard, Stanford and Yale, she officially decided on Harvard to pursue a degree in English and comparative literature. She said right now her end goal is to become a professor.

“I would encourage other students to apply to an Ivy League school, if they try their best and that’s what they want, then go for it,” Wang said.

She said the kind and welcoming community at Moscow High School helped get her to where she is today. She said the counselors, teachers and other staff really care about the students and she appreciates all the hard work they have done and continue to do.

Both her English teacher, Mike Hightower, and previous math teacher, Dean Walker, wrote her college letters of recommendation.

She said the process is competitive and she is excited to be accepted and move all the way to Massachusetts. As a Moscow native, she said she is excited to experience a new environment with new people.

She said her extracurricular activities at Moscow High School encourage her to become active on campus when she arrives at Harvard. She is currently the president of the math and creative writing clubs and participates in a variety of science and engineering fairs.

Moscow High School science teacher Pat Blount met Wang three years ago and currently serves as her AP Physics and AP Computer Science teacher. Blount said Wang has participated in science and engineering fairs the last three years.

“Jieyan is unassuming, focused, a hard worker and excels in everything she does,” Blount said. “She is an outstanding student and does amazing work for all of the science fairs.”

Blount went on a trip to the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in Pittsburgh for a week with Wang last year. She competed at the international level with more than 1,800 students from 80 different countries, he said.

He said Wang has done well every year of competing, earning $500 at the state level this year. Blount also said Wang has been published in a mathematics journal.

She also won a national scholastic competition as one of 16 students picked nationally for their creative writing work. Her week-long trip to New York for the award ceremony was scheduled for June but has been canceled.

“She has it all going on for multiple fronts, she is an amazing student,” Blount said.

Wang’s mother Lihong Wang said everyone at Moscow High School takes great care of the students and make it an excellent school. She said she is proud of her daughter for accomplishing so much and excited for her to attend Harvard.

“Jieyan is very creative, kind-hearted and generous,” Wang said. “In Moscow she volunteers at the farmers market and also tutors other students at her high school.”

She said Wang is greatly looking forward to being actively involved in campus life once she arrives at the university.

She said she started applying to schools the second half of her junior year of high school and spent lots of time preparing for the essay portion of the SAT. She said Wang likes all of the schools she applied to, but made the tough decision to choose Harvard as the one for her just recently.

“I am very excited for her and her exciting college life at Harvard,”Lihong Wang said. “I have been to Harvard for a conference and I know she will love the campus and community-feel.”

Allison Spain is a journalism student at the University of Idaho. She’s writing feature stories for the Daily News this spring. Send Allison story ideas to editor@dnews.com.