Benjamin Yang
Ask most McCallie seniors how they prefer to spend their limited spare time and you’ll likely hear answers such as video games, watching sports, listening to music or spending every free minute they can find on social media.
Then there’s Benjamin Yang, a senior boarding student from Minnesota.
“Research is my major activity six days a week,” he said this past weekend. “I like problem-solving.”
Such love of learning has recently paid off in a big way for both Yang and McCallie. The Society for Science has chosen him as one of the top 300 scholars nationwide in the 82nd Regeneron Science Talent Search, which labels itself as “the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and mathematics competition for high school seniors.”
Both Yang and the school will receive $2,000 checks, the school’s check to be used for STEM-related activities. Yang will use his money to help pay for college.
And just what science project led him to earn this award from among the 1,949 total high school seniors who entered the contest nationwide?
“How microplastics affect lung cells,” Yang said. “Each time you dry a clothing item that contains microplastics – nylon, polyester or something else – you’re releasing these microplastics into the air that can damage lung cells. They cause inflammation and cell death, possibly cancer. I’ve been working on this for three-and-a-half years.”
This is far from the only area Yang shines. He just posted the fourth-highest score nationally in the opening round of the North American Computational Linguistics Open. He’ll soon learn whether or not he has advanced to that competition’s later rounds, which seems all but certain. The international linguistics final is slated for Bulgaria.
“It’s about recognizing patterns,” he said of the linguistics challenge. “Every question is in a different language. You’re not expected to know the language. You’re trying to find patterns. Linguistics is basically problem-solving for fun.”
Just this past weekend found him having fun in Washington, DC, during an American Junior Academy of Science convention, where he again presented his microplastics paper, though it was not further competition.
Of course, Yang has been solving problems of one kind or another with great success since long before he arrived at McCallie at the start of his freshman year. While taking a program at Northwestern that’s similar to the Duke TIP program that so many bright young minds are drawn to in the Southeast, Yang made a perfect score on the ACT as an eighth grader.
He has long been a key member of Founders Dorm’s Big Five Academic Bowl team, especially when the questions turn to “Science and literature.”
Though this hasn’t yet led him to a decision on where to attend one of the 20 colleges he’s applied to, he does expect to reach a decision by the end of March, “When I’ll hear where I’ve been accepted.”
And just to prove he’s still piling up accomplishments those colleges should know about, he recently led McCallie’s Team 1 to a top eight finish in the statewide Science Bowl competition in Knoxville after helping the Blue Tornado go undefeated (5-0) in the round robin round before bowing out in the second round of the single elimination rounds.
Wrote McCallie science teacher Neal Dexter of the performance turned in by Ani Harsha, Aviral Jain, Tucker Luna, Vibin Vellanki and Yang: “ It was heartbreaking because these five seniors most likely would have won the tournament if they had been able to advance to the semi-finals and finals.”
But it’s also heartwarming to hear Yang want to mentor the Team 2 science squad, which is made up of underclassmen, when he recently said, “I want to help the sophomores and juniors with their (upcoming) projects.”
It is this sense of camaraderie that Yang says he’s most enjoyed about McCallie as a boarder living far from home.
“This is such a tight-knit community,” he said. “Just being a part of something. Just the whole boarding experience. Everybody is so incredibly friendly and supportive. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it."
It is also this concern for his fellow students that most touches McCallie faculty member Dr. Ashley Posey, who nominated Yang for the science competition.
"For the past two years in our research program, Benjamin has explored the world of microplastics and has developed a research project designed to evaluate the risk of these particles on our lung cells,” wrote Posey in an email. “I was impressed from the onset watching this student who was truly determined to develop and master his own ideas and project.”
“Not only was he consistently inquiring and asking critical-thinking questions, but he also encouraged his peers to strive for excellence throughout their time together. In my experience, most students who are striving for excellence themselves, fail to challenge their peers on any material level. This was not what I experienced with Benjamin. He lifts his peers and in doing so ultimately elevates his own work. He easily is a young man who will remain one of the most exceptional students I have had the pleasure to teach and mentor.”
Said Yang with a shrug when told of Posey’s praise, “I just want to keep this program going.”