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Hopping to the front of the line: Hard work pays off for student intern who gains acceptance to prestigious university
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Written by Lisa Tran, Reporter
Withstanding noise from the manufacturing lab, senior Simon Ammanuel isolates himself at his cubical, planning how the new product will become effective for future customers.
This past summer, Ammanuel was given an opportunity from his physics teacher, Mr. Steven Lambert, to earn money and receive a $500 scholarship from Marlow Industries, a company known for thermoelectric modules and technology. Furthermore, Ammanuel was able to stay in the running for a $10,000 scholarship, which requires him to work during the school year.
“I was pretty lucky,” Ammanuel said. “There were only two candidates, Stephanie Tran and me. The others weren’t able to do the interview, so I don’t know if you consider that luck or if that was just me.”
Grateful for his job at Marlow Industries, Ammanuel has many duties that he must perform. He creates small gadgets while incorporating chemistry, calculus and physics. In fact, he invented a little boat that will not melt in the furnace in order to test cooling mechanisms.
“That’s one of the inventions,” Ammanuel said. “I basically collect data. I try to solve problems that most people don’t focus on. I have to basically learn to meet concepts that were difficult to grasp.”
Marlow Industries may be where Ammanuel spends most of his afternoons, but that place happens to be where he received an acceptance letter to John Hopkins University. Looking back, Ammanuel remembers running around the work place twice, screaming. Despite the fact that the school is in Baltimore, Md., almost 1,209 miles away from his home, Ammanuel is certain that he would like to attend John Hopkins. But his parents weren’t as excited as he was to hear that their son has been accepted. He had to convince them that he wanted to try something different, instead of enrolling in an in-state college and living at home.
“I want to try something difficult and outgoing, so Hopkins was probably the perfect fit,” Ammanuel said. “I’ve visited there, and it was pretty much like it was home.”
As far as adjusting to a new lifestyle, Ammanuel admits that he will miss his mother’s home cooking.
“I have family there, so it’s probably not going to be a difficult transition,” Ammanuel said. “I mean, I’ve been there a few times, but it’s going to be hard to live without my family and my mother’s famous spaghetti sauce.”
However, Ammanuel will manage to fit in as life goes on. Not only is he looking forward to living alone in a new environment, he is also anxious to meet new classmates next year.
“I’m actually excited for that,” Ammanuel said. “I want to see the real world. I want to see all the exciting places, and when I go to Baltimore, there are so many big cities over there that are close by: Philadelphia, Boston, New York City.”
Unleashing his competitive side, one of Ammanuel’s biggest fears is meeting intelligent students.
“My main fear is all the smart kids there,” Ammanuel said. “I’ve been hearing stories that Hopkins has been a dog-eat-dog world. You’re all by yourself; you can’t do anything.”
Ammanuel dreams of becoming a neurosurgeon, just like his role model, Ben Carson. In the ‘80s, Carson was the first surgeon in the world to successfully separate twins conjoined at the head. As for the knowledge he gained from working at Marlow Industries, he plans on cherishing them forever as he takes one step closer to studying biomedical engineering.
“I’ve been accepted to a great college, but there’s always somebody out there better than me,” Ammanuel said. “I really learn more from my failures than my success, truly. If I didn’t learn from my failures, then I don’t think I would be able to go to Hopkins or have this excellent internship at Marlow.”
Mr. Lambert believes that Ammanuel is an outstanding scholar and is really gifted in the mathematics and science field. He knows for a fact that Ammanuel will become successful in the future, but is curious to find out how big of a splash he will make.
“He’s got a great future ahead of him and he’s certainly on the way to realizing his dreams,” Lambert said. “He’s gotten into a great school and he knows what he wants to do. Every step he’s taken is building towards a goal, so he got a plan to go and he’s executing it, so it’s pretty impressive to see what he’s done.”
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