National medal for teen scholar

HADDONFIELD Rachel Rood-Ojalvo is almost done with high school - done with the perfect 2400 SAT score, the AP exams, the acceptance to Brown University.

But she has one more experience left: a trip to Washington next month to receive her medal as a 2014 U.S. presidential scholar, a result of sustained academic excellence.

"I'm crossing my fingers that the president makes an appearance," said the Haddonfield Memorial High School senior. The 18-year-old learned this month that she was one of the 141 scholars chosen this year. New Jersey has six this year. Rood-Ojalvo is the only one from South Jersey.

She was one of 3,900 students invited in January to apply on the basis of their high SAT and ACT scores, or through certain nominations and competitions. The winners were announced last week. The program, created in 1964, now selects one male and one female student from each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and U.S. families abroad. Fifteen students are chosen at-large without geographic limitations, as are 20 "U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts."

Rood-Ojalvo said Brown, which she plans on attending, has accepted her decision to spend a gap year in France, where she will spend half her time working on a farm before volunteering in Paris. (She finished her AP French exam this week.)

Rood-Ojalvo loves to frequent a used-bookstore in Old City by herself, her mother, Jan, said. Her collection of books long ago outgrew the available space, with the rows and stacks winding around her room. "This is her passion," she said.

One of the essays for the presidential scholars application asked students to submit a picture of a place meaningful to them, and a letter or essay accompanying it.

Rood-Ojalvo chose a photograph featuring Christopher McCandless, whose story of cutting ties with his family, selling his belongings, and traveling across the country was chronicled in a 1996 book, Into the Wild, and a 2007 film of the same name.

"A lot of people think he was really reckless, and so I acknowledge that and don't want to follow exactly in his footsteps, but I really admire how much he abandoned materialism" and other trappings of modern life, Rood-Ojalvo said. - Inquirer staff