This popped up today somehow on google scholar, a link to CNN of all places:
Long Island, New York (CNN) -- A young, aspiring marine biologist -- who did not let living in homeless shelters on Long Island deter her from pursuing a prestigious Intel science program scholarship -- finally has a house to call home.
"We are all in tears here, we can barely compose ourselves enough to speak," said an emotional 17-year-old Samantha Garvey at Brentwood High School on Friday.
Garvey stood by her mother, father, sister and brother as officials announced that a three-bedroom house in Bayshore would be their new permanent home.
The family had been kicked out of their previous house December 31, the same day as her parent's anniversary. But even before that, the Garveys were no strangers to homelessness.
"This is what I worked so hard for, what they have worked so hard for, what all of us have worked so extremely hard for," Garvey said between happy tears.
Just Wednesday, Garvey was told at the shelter where she was living that her impressive marine study of ribbed sea mussels and their interaction with the ecosystem of Long Island marshes had landed her on a list of 300 semifinalists in the esteemed Intel Science Talent Search.
Her placement put her in the running for up to a $100,000 scholarship, a trip to Washington, D.C., and the prestige of participating in the Intel program, where some budding scientists have gone on to win Nobel Prizes.
Science scholar's success means a home for her family
Mostly, I feel pretty hopeless about the prospects for humanity, and I am profoundly disturbed about the world we are handing to the next generation.
Today, though, I took my boys to the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab's "Saturday Science Lectures" and listened to small children ask questions of Dr. David Goldberg, including a boy I'd estimate to be about 10 who asked about the origin of matter/anti-matter asymmetry, a pretty damn sophisticated question.
And then there's Ms. Garvey, who didn't give up.
Maybe, just maybe, these young people will prove better than we were. Maybe, just maybe, they'll be able to deal with some of the awful crap we're handing them.
Have a nice day.