According to a recent media release, Clemson University selected eight students for the 2017 National Scholars Program, the university’s most selective academic merit program.
The eight are an extraordinarily gifted group. Beyond the remarkable academic records they present — an average SAT of more than 1530 and high school class rank in the top 1 percent — these Scholars are a diverse and talented group of researchers, musicians, athletes and community servants.
Two of the incoming National Scholars plan to pursue degrees in the Department of Languages:
Breauna Franklin, South Fayette Township High School, McDonald, Pennsylvania
Franklin has been an active member of her varsity swim team and has served as captain for the past two years. She is also involved in Teen Institute, a mentoring program aiming to facilitate healthy discourse with middle school students. The past few summers, she has interned for the Opportunity Education Foundation creating an app to be distributed in pilot schools around the globe as well as the HerLead Conference. She has participated in a study-abroad program in Chile and the Frank Bolden Urban Journalism Workshop, a journalism course that has enabled her to publish articles on a variety of issues in the Pittsburgh area. Franklin is the daughter of Tammy and Norman Franklin and is planning to study Language and International Health with a concentration in Spanish.
Jacob Sargent, South Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics, Hartsville
Sargent served as Student Council president during his senior year at the Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics. He was the recipient of the Gold Award on the National German Exam and studied German language in Kulmbach, Germany, between his sophomore and junior years. He researched computer science for six weeks in Kaiserslautern, Germany, at the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering. Additionally, he played varsity soccer as a goalkeeper and defender throughout high school. Sargent is the son of Thomas Sargent and Heather Sargent and plans to pursue a Language and International Trade major with a German concentration, along with a minor in another foreign language.