Everything you (n)ever wanted to know about where I went to school
Haycock Elementary School1985-1992
I am a proud alumnus of Haycock Elementary School in Falls Church, Virginia. My seven years at Haycock generated a ton of good memories: the annual fun fairs and field days, wallball, gravel tag, Agent USA and Oregon Trail (on Apple IIe computers), sixth-grade "wills", chess tournaments, mob-like "community vs. GT" soccer games, and field trips to the National Zoo, Merrifield Post Office, Camp Highroads, and Williamsburg. It seems like all of that stuff was eons ago. Maybe I'll eventually get around to writing about some of the especially memorable things, like the Muppet-themed PE show where I voiced Kermit the Frog, the time in fifth grade when I royally choked in the school spelling bee, and the time my friend Mickey shot me in the head with a BB gun.
Longfellow Intermediate School1992-1994
After Haycock, I went to Longfellow Intermediate School. (No, I don't know who's responsible for naming schools in eastern Fairfax County.) The highlight of my time at Longfellow was math class with the incomparable Mr. Williams. The attention that his classes required set the perfect tone for the rest of high school. Aside from things that happened in Mr. Williams' Room 211, I really don't have any strong memories of my two years at Longfellow. It's kind of weird in that by the time you get used to the place, you're already on your way out the door for high school. And I'm sorry to see that Mr. Lynch has retired; he was a junior-high-school principal straight out of central casting.1
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Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology1994-1998
I went to high school at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST). TJ's a great place: (almost) everyone is studious and takes classes seriously, but the school is less nerdy than you'd think. And unlike most high schools, kids don't steal stuff left on top of lockers or beat each other up (too much). It was at TJ that I was first introduced to organic chemistry and chemical research in the fantastic tech lab run by Dr. John Liebermann. That, obviously, had some major repercussions for me. It was also nice to be able to take science courses on things like optics and marine biology, just to get a taste for the subjects. After TJ, the workload in college was no big deal. In fact, it was probably a little less intense.1
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Northern Virginia Community College1995-1998
While I was in high school, I concurrently enrolled at Northern Virginia Community College for fun. I mainly took computer courses, with some other random subjects mixed in. I'd probably pick the business classes as the most enjoyable. It seemed like the subject matter had the most everyday/practical value. The two composition classes I took allowed me to skip the freshman Expository Writing Program at NYU. For some reason, NYU wouldn't take AP credit for these classes but did accept my transfer credits from Nova. This saved me hours of pain in college; my friends universally hated "expos".
Precalculus and TrigonometryComputer Program DesignIntroduction to BusinessCollege Composition IFitness and WellnessVolleyballOrientationIntroduction to Microcomputer SoftwarePrinciples of ManagementTechnical WritingComputer Programming: CDatabase ManagementIntroduction to Speech CommunicationIntroduction to TelecommunicationsPC Hardware TroubleshootingComputer Programming: C++Introduction to Information SystemsMicrocomputers: Operating Systems, Architecture, and HardwareComputer Information System DevelopmentNew York University
The day after being named a finalist in the 1998 Westinghouse competition, I received a package from New York University that contained a course catalogue and the offer of a nice scholarship attached to an undergraduate research grant. I had always wanted to go to college at a place where I felt wanted, and they certainly showed a lot of interest. The decision paid off: NYU was a great place to be an undergrad. The classes were excellent and the chemistry department had a great support structure for undergrad research. As an ancillary benefit, I got to live smack dab in the middle of lower Manhattan and partake in all it had to offer. I was able to get involved in research early, as a freshmen, and my experience in the lab of David Schuster cemented my plans of making a career out of chemistry.Harvard University
For graduate school, I continued my academic journey up the East Coast to Harvard. It was quite an experience.
