The large poster decorated one wall of the Walker Hall lobby on Tuesday night. It looked like something created by a medical school or a pharmaceutical company. Just the title—Optimization of One-Component Ionizable Amphiphilic Janus Dendrimer Design for Enhanced Dendrimersome Nanoparticle mRNA Delivery—sounded like you needed a graduate degree to comprehend it.
So, who created this? One of McCallie's science teachers? An alum who graduated from Harvard Medical School? The Mayo Clinic?
Try McCallie junior day student Joshua Kim.
"I have been working on this since the end of school last year," said Kim on Tuesday night at the first annual McCallie Research Symposium. "So almost a full year."
Asked to sum up his nearly 12 months of research for those less intelligent than he, Kim grabbed a notebook and wrote: "Enhancing Nanoparticle mRNA Delivery with IAJD Design Optimization."
Of course.
Not that an average layperson would be the only one to be flummoxed by the depth of Kim's research project, which will compete in the International Science Competition in Columbus, Ohio, this summer. His mother, Jung Bin Hyun, said of her son, "We have told him, 'We are happy to support you, we are so proud of you, but we do not know what you are talking about (when you tell us about your projects).'"
Science teacher Ashley Posey, who oversees so many projects like Kim's, cannot be overlooked in this. As Hyun says, "Dr. Posey has been truly amazing. She has sacrificed her dinner time some nights to help them. Whatever they need, she is there for them.
"When they go to competitions, the judges will say, 'I cannot believe this research is being done in high school. This is college-level research.’"
Yet as the Research Symposium so clearly showed, Kim is not alone among McCallie students when it comes to excellence in science and historical research.
Anthony Xian deftly explained his project "Unveiling the Neurophysiological Mechanisms of Self-Cognition and its Impact on Working Memory" to the 70 or more students, faculty, family, and friends who attended the Symposium. Vishnu Vardhana's "Examining the Toxicological Effects of Tennis Ball-Derived Microfiber Particulates on A549 Alveolar Lung Cell Health" caught the eye of head of school Lee Burns, who starred in tennis at both McCallie and Dartmouth.
"That is amazing stuff," said Burns. "This is college-level research. I just hope I have not hurt my health playing tennis all these years. I am kidding, but the talent level of our students in these science and historical research projects is off the charts. They deserve this recognition, and I hope we can grow an event like this in the future."
Although the historical research side of the evening did not boggle the mind as much as the science projects that were presented, it just as forcefully showcased the creativity, depth, and effort given to those students' topics. That is why eight McCallie students will be moving on to the National History Day national competition in Maryland in June.
Ironically, one of the history research projects that will not be going to the nationals at the University of Maryland brought the loudest applause from the crowd.
After Johnny Blessing, Elijah Cooper, Joe Chambers, and Anthony Xian completed their individual projects for the National History Day competition, they went back and created a group performance, a play if you will, on "Tinker v. Des Moines" regarding freedom of speech, a case that wound up in the Supreme Court and was won by the students of that school system. The performance did not win them a trip to Maryland, but it did win the best project for Constitutional Rights and a cash prize. Witty and on point, it was a showstopper inside Walker Hall.
The Research Symposium was exactly what Sumner McCallie, Dean of Faculty and Curriculum, had hoped it would be when it was added to the calendar this year.
"One of the goals at McCallie is to create the space for students to discover and then pursue an intellectual passion," McCallie said. "The Research Symposium is a great example of how this can work when a mentor teacher can listen to a student's interests and then help shape probing questions and guide them through the skills and resources to answer those questions."
"As the first of these kinds of evenings, we were not sure of the numbers who might show up. What a delight to see so many people: parents, teachers, and fellow students. It underscores the value this community places on rigorous academic pursuit outside the classroom."
Says Posey, "I am humbled by this turnout. I was afraid there would just be me and myself here. It is great for these students to know how much interest there is in their hard work."
Richey added, "What these kids have accomplished is the equivalent of a football state championship for academics and research."