A R K A N S A S T IME S
✭
A C A DE MIC A L L-S TA R S
Forrest City School District Congratulates
PHILOSOPHER, SONGWRITER
Ardraya McCoy
S
everal years ago, Celina Miranda saw a post on Facebook about symptoms of an eating disorder. She recognized some in herself, told her mom, went to see a doctor and received treatment for a year. It’s probably safe to say that most teen-age sufferers of psychological illness — particularly one as stigmatized as an eating disCELINA MIRANDA order — don’t become outspoken advocates for awareness AGE: 17 about the illness as part of their recovery. But, as Cabot HOMETOWN: Cabot High principal Henry Hawkins wrote in an essay nomiHIGH SCHOOL: Cabot High nating Celina as an Academic All-Star, Celina has a certain School “ferocity” about her (also, per Hawkins, charm, wit, insight PARENTS: Carla and Vince and brilliance). As a junior, she started National Eating Miranda Disorders Week at Cabot High, and spoke in classrooms COLLEGE PLANS: Vanderbilt throughout the school about the myths and health concerns University, pre-med surrounding eating disorders and the best methods to talk to someone who might be at risk. Talking openly with her peers is important to Celina. After she attended Governor’s School over the summer, where coursework promoted critical thinking, logic and philosophy, she and a friend persuaded a teacher to sponsor the creation of a philosophy club. Now once a week after school, 30 students gather to talk about controversial issues — belief in a deity, the prison system, women’s rights, gay rights. No one has objected to the club yet, Celina said. “Part of why we haven’t gotten pushback is that we made it really clear that we wanted it to be open and safe.” Celina is a National Merit finalist, on track to graduate first in a senior class of 675. She plans to attend Vanderbilt, where she’ll likely major in biology or chemistry, en route to going to medical school. Or maybe she’ll make it big as a songwriter. She said she partly chose a college in Nashville in hopes of pursuing her country-pop songwriting. She’s a seasoned singer, who gives elementary students piano and guitar lessons. But it’s the songwriting part that she especially finds gratifying. “I don’t keep a diary or anything, but I do write songs to figure things out for myself,” she said.
LOVES LANGUAGES — AND EVERYTHING ELSE
S
Place Your Order Today!
onia Helen Pascale is one of those super-bright and poised young scholars who, having excelled in everything, does not yet know what course she’ll chart in college. She’s brought home gold medals on the National Classical Etymology Exam, the National Latin SONIA HELEN PASCALE AGE: 17 Exam and the National Spanish Exam, so languages are HOMETOWN: Pine Bluff an obvious strength for her. (Her mother is from VenezuHIGH SCHOOL: Episcopal ela and she spent two summers in Panama in intensive Collegiate School Spanish study; she did not take Spanish at Episcopal.) But PARENTS: James Pascale and she’s also a math tutor through the Volunteers in Public Mildred Franco Schools, and has recruited others in her private school COLLEGE PLANS: Yale to tutor in the public schools. Then there’s the research University she did last summer at the Stephens Spine Institute on the campus of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, when she worked with Dr. William Fantegrossi for seven weeks with lab mice on research about alcoholaddiction fighting compounds. “I spent the first couple of weeks learning how to pick up a mouse,” Sonia Helen said, and then learning how to inject them with test drugs. “By the end of the time they allowed me to do a surgery on one of the mice,” she said. “It was a really cool experience.” As captain of her school’s Quiz Bowl team, Sonia Helen spends many of her Saturdays out of town at competitions, but she’s not just a brain: She’s also co-captain of the varsity tennis team at Episcopal, and hopes to teach tennis this summer. While Sonia Helen doesn’t yet know what she might major in in college — “I am one of the most indecisive people,” she says — she’s known since 5th grade, when she accompanied her father to the campus, that she wanted to attend Yale. “It felt like home.” She loves all subjects, and Yale is good in all of them, she added. But first, she thinks, she’ll spend a gap year abroad, continuing her study of Spanish. “Rarely do I have the privilege of working with a student who has it so together,” Philip A. Hooper wrote in his recommendation of Sonia Helen.
On Her Outstanding Achievement
See How They Run May 21 – JUNE 15
NOW – May 18
Enjoy our nEw chEf and mEnu Colonel Glenn & University • 562-3131
Share us on
Celebrating 30 years of lunch breaks, business meetings and afternoon get-togethers Enjoy All of Our
Signature
ew NRoast Beef
Swiss & Mushroom
Lunch Entrées for
9
$
.99 or Less
Celebrate flavor. Celebrate life.
New
Muffaletta
NewLemon Mixed Berry Cheesecake
Available Monday-Friday Until 4PM Add side salad with lunch entrée for $2.49
GOES CRAZY AT Since 1983
Anniversary
Shackleford Crossing • Shackleford & I-430 312-1616 • www.copelandsrestaurantlittlerock.com www.arktimes.com
APRIL 25, 2013
25