photo by: Contributed photo

Audrey Nguyen-Hoang, a Bishop Seabury Academy senior, was named the winner of the Journal-World's 2021 Academic All-Star award.

Most high school students could probably give you a whole list of courses they wished they didn’t have to take. Not Bishop Seabury Academy senior Audrey Nguyen-Hoang.

In fact, when a friend once asked her what her least favorite subject was in school, Nguyen-Hoang said she couldn’t come up with an answer. For her, the possibility of learning something new is always exhilarating.

“Everything changes when you learn new things,” Nguyen-Hoang recently told the Journal-World.

It’s not a surprise to learn that Nguyen-Hoang excelled in the classroom. According to her application to the Journal-World’s 2021 Academic All-Star program, she earned straight A’s during her high school career, and almost all of those were actually A+’s. Her weighted GPA was an outstanding 4.4963, and she is considering attending either Stanford University or Rice University, two prestigious private higher-education institutions, when she enters college this fall.

These are just a few of the reasons a panel of judges selected Nguyen-Hoang as the winner of the 2021 Academic All-Star award, which comes with a $500 scholarship.

Nguyen-Hoang doesn’t look at learning as just passing exams getting good grades. For her, it’s all about getting a better understanding of the world around her. While she said she loves the sciences, she has consistently been surprised to see how something she learned in one subject helped her understand something better in another, or in the world in general.

“I think in approaching every subject with the idea that it can give you new insight on something else you like can help,” she said. “Looking at books can actually change how you view movies or something. I just kind of realized that everything is not consolidated into the classroom.”

Nguyen-Hoang’s accomplishments aren’t confined to academics, either. Her dedication to helping others is a major part of who she is. One of her teachers at Bishop Seabury, Bill Gollier, told the Journal-World she is an “incredible person who works to help others and make them better.”

Gollier, who teaches social studies, said he believes there is no limit to what Nguyen-Hoang can achieve after her time at Bishop Seabury.

“Words are not enough when talking about Audrey. She is one of the most gifted and dedicated students I have taught,” he said in an email. “She is dedicated, mature, driven, compassionate — just an amazing person.”

Nguyen-Hoang has a long list of ways she’s helped others. She’s helped raise money for the Lawrence Humane Society and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and she’s also volunteered with food and item drives for the Lawrence Community Shelter, Just Food and Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center. On top of all that, she’s helped tutor other students.

Her college and career aspirations also fall in line with her passion to do good and help others.

Nguyen-Hoang said she plans to study biochemistry and psychology with a goal to become a medical doctor. She said she felt that’s a good profession because of her love of science and the human body.

“The fact that we’re alive and breathing is itself a miracle, because if you throw a bunch of chemicals together, it doesn’t create life,” she said. “It’s just like a bunch of random chemicals. But, like, somehow we are.”

She’s particularly interested in where psychology and biology intersect, because she’s learned one’s mental state and how they see the world can have an effect on their genetic makeup. For instance, she said she’s learned that individuals who develop post-traumatic stress disorder could have children who are more likely to develop it too when they are exposed to traumatic events.

These kinds of issues, Nguyen-Hoang said, are areas where she might be able to affect people’s lives.

“Anything I could do to look at what we do to communities and cultures right now is going to affect the world in the future,” Nguyen-Hoang said. “Let me basically start caring for people right now to help benefit the world as people get older.”

Medicine won’t just give her an opportunity to pursue a science-oriented career — it will also give her plenty of opportunities to make a difference for those around her.

“I noticed medicine is my compromise between being really interested in science and getting to interact with and make people happier,” Nguyen-Hoang said. “We’re all on this planet — there’s no reason why we shouldn’t try to make everyone else happier, even if it’s a small interaction.”