From finding a new way to treat breast cancer to raising awareness about mental health issues to earning gold medals at the Olympics, this year's crop of high school seniors already boast impressive resumes.
Based on reader nominations, news stories, and word of mouth, we found 20 incredibly impressive students graduating from high school this year who are already accomplishing more than most adults.
Amara Majeed is eradicating stereotypes about Muslims and empowering Muslim women.
High school: Towson High School, Baltimore, Maryland
Majeed started a global initiative, The Hijab Project, in order to promote the understanding and empowerment of Muslim women. The project encourages women from all backgrounds to try wearing a hijab the next time they go out in public and share their stories of how they feel they were treated by others. Global News and The Baltimore Sun interviewed Majeed about the project, and she was also featured on MSNBC.
She also recently published "The Foreigners," a book which chronicles the lives of Muslims around the world. "I wanted to show the world that the majority of Muslims aren’t corrupt leaders of organizations that steal, rape, and sell girls on the market," Majeed told BI. She also writes for CNN, The Huffington Post, and Bustle.
Plans after graduation: Majeed plans to double major in international relations and philosophy at Brown University in the fall, and conduct research on conflict resolution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Andreas Pavlou used gene therapy to test new ways to treat breast cancer.
High school: Sewanhaka High School, Elmont, New York
Last summer, Pavlou had the opportunity to research the long-term effects that night-time light exposure has on breast cancer patients, and identified a gene that showed abnormal expression in triple-negative breast cancer, and in patients exposed to light at night. Using new gene therapy concepts in conjunction with a common cancer drug, Pavlou and his lab mates noticed mainly negative growth in cancerous cells, rendering their experiments a success and pointing to new ways gene therapy can be used to treat cancer.
Pavlou is also the editor-in-chief of his high school's newspaper, the president of the student council, and the co-president of the mock trial program.
After his father died in 2014, Pavlou began helping care for his family, and recently earned the prestigious Questbridge scholarship for low-income students, which grants recipients a full ride to college.
Plans after graduation: Pavlou plans to attend the University of Pennsylvania and study international relations.
Andrew Jin created an algorithm that's helping us understand the genetic causes of diseases like schizophrenia.
High school: The Harker School, San Jose, California
Earlier this year, Jin took home the First Place Medal of Distinction for Global Good from the Intel Science Talent Search, along with a $150,000 prize, for crafting a machine-learning algorithm that analyzes massive data sets of DNA and identifies adaptive mutations in them.
His algorithm discovered over 100 mutations related to metabolism, brain function, and disorders like schizophrenia. Not only do these findings help researchers better understand human evolution, but they can potentially be used to help develop new vaccines and treatments.
Before that, Jin and a friend created a new chemotherapy treatment that increased potency, reduced toxic side effects, and prevented drug resistance, earning him second place at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair and third place in the Siemens Competition.
Plans after graduation: In the fall, Jin will start at Harvard University, studying computer science and biology. He'll also spend the summer interning at Facebook to work on machine learning with the search team.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider