President Bush Addresses His First Medallion Ceremony

President Bush Debuts at 2001 Medallion Ceremony

Midafternoon on Monday, June 25, parents, teachers and friends began arriving at Constitution Hall while the Marine Corps Band played marches and the presidential press corps set up cameras. At the Medallion ceremony, each of 141 Presidential Scholars meets the president of the United States, and receives a gold amulet to commemorate participation in the PS program. In a busy schedule of events, the Medallion Ceremony is the heart of National Recognition Week. When President Lyndon Johnson launched the Presidential Scholars Program in 1964, he began the tradition of personally awarding a medallion to each of the young scholars chosen to represent the 50 states. Despite the enormous demands of the White House, over the years only emergencies of state have kept the American president from officiating at the Medallion Ceremony.

The ceremony is always a compelling event; this year, it carried the special excitement of a first look at President George W. Bush. The meticulously punctual President Bush did not disappoint. At exactly 3:30, the Marine Band's Sousa march faded mid-tune and silence fell on Constitution Hall. At 3:31, the President entered stage left and strode calmly across the stage, accompanied by Secretary of Education Rod Paige, and Bruno V. Manno, chair of the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars. Dr. Manno opened the ceremony with special congratulations to the students, singling out the parents who provide critical behind-the-scenes support for educational and civic excellence.

Secretary Rod Paige spoke next. Years of service as a member of the Board of Education of Houston's school district, and later its superintendent, have fed Secretary Paige’s deep familiarity with President Bush and his approach to education policy. I’ve always admired the patience, discipline and focus on real results that President Bush brings to the issue of education,” Paige said. “You might learn something from the President today,” he continued, “not just for good intentions but for results.”

President Bush took the podium with characteristic ease. “Sit down,'' he ordered humorously. “And first of all, behave yourselves.” He too, commended the students and their parents, saying, “You’ve earned your place here today but you did not do it alone.” Teachers also got words of praise as “models and mentors.” Bush commented eloquently, GA teacher can change a life, and a generation of good teachers can change a nation.”

Rehearsing a portion of his education stump speech, President Bush urged Congress to act on his education bill, placing it in the context of civil rights legislation passed 37 years ago. “The next frontier of civil rights is a solid education” he said. Then in a sometimes amusing procession, each Presidential Scholar advanced across the stage to receive a presidential handshake and pose for a photo. As a father of two college freshman, President Bush was clearly comfortable with the young people parading up to him. He'd turn each toward the camera, banter to encourage a smile, and send the Scholar off with a clap on the back. Some of the Scholars joked with the famously informal president; a few of the arts scholars grabbed the opportunity to plead for continued funding for the arts. As Scholars watched from bleachers behind the President, Bush often turned to talk with them.

But as relaxed as the proceeding appeared, President Bush never strayed from his purpose. The ceremony ended at 3:58. The President shook many hands in the crowd that surged toward the stage. Then he gracefully slipped out a stage door as the Marine Corps Band played the most dazzling rendition of “Stars and Stripes Forever” that any Scholar or parent will hear in a lifetime. Hail to the Chief And hail to the piccolo!

Kennedy Center’s Salute to the 2001 Presidential Scholars

In the golden light of an early summer evening, a friendly audience arrived at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., walking past rowers on the Potomac River and barks of flowers at the Watergate. Inside, the young performers of the “Salute to the 2001 Presidential Scholars” steeled their nerves for the evening-long artistic exhibition of National Recognition Week, held in the imposing Concert Hall of the Kennedy Center. The show opened with the brief onstage march of a military color guard and the singing of the national anthem to announce the official nature of the event. After that, the evening belonged to the arts. In an opening “warm-up” skit the young dancers, musicians and actors stretched, leaped and mimed to the music of contemporary American composer, John Adams.

Then came the recitalists. Cellist Jared Snyder from Elm Grove, Wisconsin was first, setting a magical tone for the evening by transporting the audience with the languorous lines of a Samuel Barber sonata. He was accompanied (as were many of the performers) by Washington, D.C. pianist Frank Conlon. Snyder pulled a lush, dark sound from his cello, reminding the audience that they were present not only to celebrate young talent, but to be astonished at the artistic maturity that rises to the surface in young people. This was confirmed by the second performer of the evening, soprano Brooke Lieberman. A vision in shimmering white silk, she displayed amazing range, high notes and depth of expression. Because operatic singers only begin to approach vocal maturity when they are in their 30s, Lieberman’s perfect performance was another reminder of the extraordinary gifts of these performers.

The next performer, Wisconsin violinist Karen Jo Kim, performed the first movement of Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in D minor with flawless intonation and great passion. A classical ballet dancer came next: Daniel Keene of Dallas, Texas, who sprang across the stage in a performance of “La Fille Mal Gardee.” Another Texan, Vernon Gooden, performed his own choreography in a compelling performance he titled “Unspoken” to music from the movie, “The Red Violin.” Next a North American champion Irish dancer from Connecticut, Maura Hobson, dazzled the audience in a hard shoe solo called “Dancing on the Green” that ricocheted through the hall. Then, when the audience had deduced that it was witnessing the longest legs in America, classical dancer Daniel Keene returned to display his extraordinary extensions in variations from “Don Quixote.”

Solos on two of the most challenging (and, it is said, unreliable) instruments followed. Both performances were flawless. Aaron Apaza, bassonist from Rapid City, South Dakota, opened with the intricate first movement of Jacob’s '“Concerto for Bassoon and Strings.” A French horn player from Florida, Kevin Rivard, followed. He played the allegro movement from Gliere’s Concerto, opus 91, with the most golden, burnished tone that this listener has ever heard in a horn. A theatre montage of monologues followed. Juilliard-bound Michael Moore, possessed of a stunning theatrical tenor, opened with the visionary song, “I can see so far” William Sturdivant gave a charming performance of a monologue from “A Chorus Line.” He made the audience laugh with a bitter reading of the line, “I'd like to see a musical where the entire Trapp Family dies in an avalanche.” And he closed sensationally with the repeated words, “sensational kiss.” Larry Wayne Wilso grabbed the audience’s attention with his masterful physical comedy – probably more amusing to the audience than it had been to the Secret Service a few days before, when Wilson patted down President Bush onstage at Constitution Hall.

The final Scholar to perform was jazz pianist Frank LoCrasto, whose work, “Portrait of You,” showed the influence of Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Chick Corea and his inimitable self. While still in high school, LoCrasto won praise in Downbeat Magazine. The Kennedy Center Salute included tributes from the Presidential Scholars Program to its faithful supporters. Eve Slater of The Merck Company Foundation received an award in thanks for the years of support from Merck. Christie Powell, retiring Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, shared good wishes for the Program. James Farmer of General Motors and GMAC Financial Services, and also a PSF officer, offered eloquent remarks in his greeting from the stage. He reminded the crowd that the story of academic achievement is still not very interesting to media who would rather report on athletes than scholars. “We still have to buy a full page ad for our Scholars in USA Today,” he said. “Maybe someday we won’t have to.”

Letter from the Presidential scholars Foundation

At the Medallion Ceremony in June, President Bush captured the essence of our work at the Foundation when he said to our Scholars, “I want to thank you for the contribution you make to our nation today, and urge you on, because the contributions you’ll make tomorrow will be just as important.” Like President Bush, we too are looking ahead with hope for our Scholars. We also look ahead with expectations, of them and of ourselves. We expect to continue our growth so that we can support the Program’s activities every year, and we also expect to continue strengthening our communications framework so that Scholars can stay connected to the Program that has meant so much to them.

Our Foundation’s mission is to be the sturdy pillar of volunteers that keeps the Presidential Scholars Program alive and healthy. Our role is somewhat parental – we don’t just provide financial support; we also offer consistency of support, and a vision that arches over the Program’s four decades. When the Presidential Scholars Program was founded in1964, the federal government paid all its bills. That is no longer the case. Though many of the Program’s activities are supported by the Department of Education, our Foundation gives much, and must be available to give more. The Presidential Scholars Foundation also provides the framework through wich alumni can keep in touch, and find each other for more mature collaboration once they are launched on their careers. Our home page is just that – a home where Scholars can visit and catch up. It’s a touchstone, like dropping in on old friends. But to succeed at this, we have to take another aspect of our mission very seriously. We try to keep track of Presidential Scholars as they move through the most transient period of their lived, from college dorm to apartment to grad school to career. This requires organization and funding.

We know that many of our alumni are interested in returning to Washington, D.C. to hook up with friends and check in on the Program. If you are a PS alumni, we are interested in your ideas for future gatherings and fundraising. Onstage at the Kennedy Center, Commissioner Mary Kramer praised our Foundation for its “tireless work.” That was very gratifying. But it was also a reminder of what we must continue to do. Please stay in touch with us through our new and improved web site, and also consider making a contribution to our important work. I look forward to hearing from all of you! <i>Joe DiVincenzo, President, Presidential Scholars Foundation</I>

Seeking the Soft Side of Hard Science

Rarely does a nosebleed turn into a life-changing event, but Daniel Lee’s nosebleed was different. It started for no reason and wouldn’t stop. After several days of “bleeding out,” it had turned into a surgical emergency. Lee, then a senior at Columbia University, was scheduled for surgery with one of the nation’s leading otologists. As he was prepped, he was able to share some good news with his medical team. That very morning, he announced, he’d been accepted into the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. So Lee rolled into the operating room as a patient, and came out hooked on a specialty that most people would recognize from its informal description “ear nose and throat.”

Dr. Lee, 33, is now a fellow in Otology, Neurotology and Skullbase Surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Science and medicine run in his family. Lee’s mother is a family practitioner; his father is a biochemist. His sister, Karen Lee, has also completed medical school and is doing her residency in family practice. Along with science, there is a family inclination towards youthful achievement. That sister was a violin prodigy and winner in the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts competition who had to choose between medicine or music.

But despite powerful family influences, Dr. Lee says that his pursuit of excellence was not preordained. Dan Lee received what he calls an “average education” in public schools in Bloomington, Minnesota. I think schools, because of what they perceived as ‘elitism,’ were afraid to support the more gifted and high-achieving students.” He still worries about talented high school classmates who could not land the scholarships required to cover tuition at prestigious universities. Our educational system, he says, “forgets those who may be the most productive people in our society.” He’d like to do something about that.

Lee, like his sister, felt the tug of the liberal arts. As an undergraduate, Columbia University attracted him with its mandatory core humanities program. He threw himself into art and architecture along with his major in biology. Ultimately the dual focus meant choosing between architecture or medicine. “I chose medicine because of its humanistic aspecty” he says. “Architecture is just you and your project — you’re stuck building models. It’s lonely. l like the human side. Medicine felt more natural.”

And now that Lee is practicing medicine, he credits his humanities’ education with providing important tools for relating to patients. “Every atient is unique,” he says, “in culture, outlook, and where they come from. It all comes into play as you forge the doctor-patient relationship. I have goals for the first interview – I always try to hear a patient laugh, and to talk about something important that’s outside medicine.”

Lee says his own medical emergency was a crucible. “I know that as a patient you’re very vulnerable and extremely sensitive to what’s around you, especially to your surgeon. I still remember the residents who were brusque, and the ones who talked to me as a person. it’s trite but it makes sense – there’s a big difference.”

Lee’s first observation of a revolutionary hearing device called the cochlear implant cemented his commitment to otology (“oto” is Greek for “the ear”). He was a junior resident, and the patient was an older woman who had gradually lost her hearing. After the implants she tearfully described to her doctors the experience of hearing her grandchildren speak, and of once again talking on the telephone. “What a gift!” Lee says.

Lee is sensitive to advocates in the deaf community who charge that cochlear implants are an attempt to wipe out the unique language and culture of the deaf. But as studies show the implant’s remarkable utility, he remains an unabashed cheerleader. “While there’s research on the artificial retinay” he notes, “the bionic ear is the only neural prosthesis available that we can implant. It’s pretty amazing.”

Lee has taken his visionary enthusiasm to the Internet. In an effort to assure that accurate information is available on the web, he is an editor for yourDoctor.com and Healthcite.com. His own web sited www.danieljlee.com, while still a work in progress, will offer a page where a visitor can enter details about an ailment, and request information from Lee and the Hopkins staff. He shrugs off the suggestion that this generous level of interaction is beyond the call of duty. “It’s the future,” he says as he races off for his Saturday morning medical rounds.

Dodge Foundation Community Project Awaits Rescue

An inspired pilot project that introduces dedicated young people to the gritty, hands-on work of community service is wrapping up this month. In the last two years, the Community Service Project funded by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation has placed 16 Presidential Scholars in eight-week internships planned for the summer following their freshman year of college. From New York sweatshop to family law courtroom to urban emergency room, the project opened a window on American experiences previously unseen by these idealistic young Presidential Scholars.

The American Association for Gifted Children administered the Community Services Program, and was responsible for evaluating the worthiness of applicants and projects. This year’s panel included: Marsha J. Evans, retired rear admiral in the U.S. Navy who is National Executive Director of the Girl Scouts; Dr. Judy Jolley Mohraz, President and CEO of the Virginia Piper Charitable Trust; Hon. James C. Francis IV, a judge at the U.S. Court House, New York, NY and a Presidential Scholars alumnus; and William C. Miller, Academic Dean and Provost of the US Naval Academy. Here is a summary of six projects for Presidential Scholars from the class of 1999, funded by the Dodge Foundation in summer 2000.

Hua Wang worked with immigrants at the Garment Workers’ Center in New York City. She observed their working conditions in sweatshops and recruited them to join a labor union and to register to vote. She also taught English at the Spanish Justice Center and in Chinatown, where, she writes, the students “listen attentively to every word I say and treasure the worksheets I give them.” Michael Bennett worked in the emergency room of Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. In the ER,” he wrote, “I have assisted with and seen some fascinating things.” Adam Hornstine spent his summer in the Superior Court of New Jersey, in the Family Division where he got a unique look at juvenile justice and matrimonial matters. Unique opportunities arise, Adam notes, when staff go on vacation and their assignments fall into the lap of an eager volunteer. Judge Stephen Thompson oversaw the intern, and wrote to “compliment the Presidential Scholars Foundation for this wonderful opportunity.” He added, “Adam will make an excellent attorney, and may be a jurist in years to come.” Another legal intern, Kate Wiltenberger took an internship in the Youth Advocacy Unit of the Missouri State Public Defender’s Office. Her supervisor at first confessed to skepticism over how useful an inexperienced undergraduate like Kate could be. But her work on a complex murder case was extraordinary, says her supervisor: foliate organized the file case so I could locate every witness and every potential piece of evidence. She then took all the different statements made by all the witnesses, and made a chart for each witness of all the inconsistencies. This will be invaluable during the trial.” Benjamin P. Solomon-schwartz spent his summer in the Wetlands Division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He attended agency meetings, and a hearing at the House of Representatives. “I have gained a real taste of what working in government is like, he writes.” In one word he says, it was “amazing.”

Anthony Wang spent his summer at D.C. General Hospital where the director of the emergency department, Dr. Howard Freed, endeavored to show him every aspect of hospital work. Dr. Freed praised the program as “an excellent experience on both sides.” He said, “I think it was helpful to place a somewhat impressionable, presumed future leader into the heart of a chaotic but quite real contemporary charity hospital, to help him put into perspective the more organized and comfortable experiences of his college years.” The Dodge Foundation specifies that the workday of a Dodge intern is not to be squandered on office chores. Says intern Hua Wang, “I got hands-on work and escaped the traditional ‘intern’ duties of making coffee and copies. I left New York grateful that I had gained an important perspective on service, sweatshops, and myself.” Wang is not alone in her gratitude. At this transitional moment, the Presidential Scholars Foundation expresses its gratitude to the officers of the Dodge Foundation for the generosity and wisdom that shaped this beautifully conceived program. Now the program must become self-supporting. For it to continue, the Foundation is seeking alumni who are involved with non-profit community programs that could use summer interns. The alumni would also be responsible for minimal fundraising to cover the interns’ stipend. Contact Joe DiVincenzo at the PS Foundation with information or ideas on continuing this valuable program.