Palmetto High School rising senior Lindsey Yang won the Cornell Book Award at the Palmetto Awards Ceremony in April. The award recognizes a junior’s commitment to academic excellence and community service.
For two years, Yang has gone back to Ammons Middle School to work with students who compete in the Mathcounts competition.
“The math team there goes every year,” she says. “I did Mathcounts myself, so I thought I could go back there and help prepare them.”
Starting in September, she went every two weeks. The regional competition takes place in February so practice would end then unless they qualified for the state competition, in which case she’d continue until that event was over.
Because she’s expecting to be busy her senior year, she has recruited her brother to take over the program as a community service project.
At Palmetto, Yang is a member of Mu Alpha Theta, the math honor society. She’s competed for Mu Alpha Theta for the past three years.
“We usually compete in the January and March regional competitions,” she says.
As a sophomore she was secretary and this year she was the vice president of competitions. Her senior year she’ll be treasurer.
“My main goal in the club is organizing the competitions and practice,” she says.
Yang is also a member of the English Honor Society and the Science National Honor Society.
“Since tenth grade I’ve been doing the regional Science Bowl,” she says. “This year my team won third place.”
She’s participated in Envirothon as well. Last year her team placed first in the Aquatics category and this year they placed first overall.
Yang also competed in the Chemistry Olympiad since tenth grade and placed in regionals both years, qualifying for nationals. The first year she took fourth place and this year she was third place.
Outside of school, Yang plays piano and participates in local competitions.
“I’ve been selected to play in every Chopin Foundation Young Pianists’ Concert since 2012,” she says. “The concert in 2012 was the first public concert I ever played and so it kind of has a special place in my heart.”
She took first place in the Homestead Community Concert Scholarship Competition and the South Florida Young Artists Solo Competition. She was second this year in the Greater Miami Youth Symphony Concerto Competition and earned Honorable Mention at the Steinway Gallery Junior Piano Competition. Yang also placed second in the University of Miami Frost Preparatory Piano Competition.
She’s an active member and scholarship recipient of the Coral Gables Junior Music Club.
She hopes to play piano in college.
“It’s something that is a hobby and helps me relax. I try to play every day,” she says. “There is something nice about making other people feel the same kind of joy I feel as I play.”
Yang is the co-president of the Miami branch of the Allied Youth Leaders of the United States (AYLUS). They go to Nspire (formerly the Heartland Health Care Center) every month and play a concert.
Currently, she’s building her college list with some top universities. She expects to major in a STEM field such as chemistry, molecular biology or bio-chemistry.
This summer she will go to Florida State University for the STEM-based Young Scholars Program. She’s requested classes in the computer language Python, synthetic biology, and mathematical modeling. She’ll also work on a research project with a professor. Yang hopes to further explore her interests in scientific research.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
