MANILA, Philippines - A Filipino-American teenager from New York was named finalist in the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search (STS) and is headed to Washington, D.C. on March 5 to 9 to compete with 39 other budding scientists across the United States for a $100,000 college scholarship.
Patrick Jeffrey Abejar, 17, a senior at Smithtown High School West on Long Island, received a $5,000 grant and an Intel laptop computer as a finalist for his project relevant to today’s research into global warming.
In his project, “Utilizing Boron Isotopic Secular Variation as a Proxy to Assess Climate Change,” Abejar measured the level of boron in marine fossils, and found that those levels fluctuate with global warming and cooling. Higher levels indicate a global warming cycle, lower levels a global cooling period.
“The pattern is cyclical and we can use this model to predict climate change or what will occur next,” Abejar told STARweek in an interview. He got support in this milestone project from his mentor, Dr. E. Troy Rasbury of Stony Brook University.
Abejar has been featured in several New York publications, including The Filipino Reporter, and has been receiving congratulatory messages from friends, classmates and teachers.
“They’re all very proud of me in school,” he says, adding, “They’re all excited for me.”
Abejar’s project initially competed with 1,608 entries and later 300 semi-finalists to land in the top 40 final slots. Intel STS is America’s oldest and most prestigious science research competition for high school seniors. Since 1942 – first in partnership with Westinghouse and since 1998 with Intel – the competition has provided a national stage for America’s best and brightest young scientists to present original research to nationally recognized professional scientists.
As a finalist, Abejar also won an all-expense paid trip to Washington, where all 40 finalists have the opportunity to present their research projects to the general public and members of the scientific community at the National Academy of Sciences. They will also meet with distinguished government leaders and participate in a rigorous judging process.
The top three winners will receive $100,000; $75,000 and $50,000 in prizes.
“Aside from congressional leaders, we were told we might have a chance to meet President Barack Obama,” says a thrilled Abejar, who is one of four Intel finalists from Long Island, and one of nine from across New York State.
Abejar, born in Flushing, New York, is the son of Ludovico Abejar of Pandacan, Manila and the former Imelda Abolencia, a registered nurse, of Paco, Manila. He has a younger brother, Matthew.
In his spare time, Abejar volunteers at the Nesconset Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, assisting with therapeutic recreation. He spends about four hours a day after school helping seniors who cannot participate in the center’s recreational activities.
“Whether it’s reading the newspaper to them, or watching TV and discussing it with them, or playing board games with them... the nurses deliver the quality of care and we deliver the quality of life, and that’s what I live by,” Abejar told the Times Beacon Record.
The Fil-Am teen has applied to seven colleges, but Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston and Cornell University in Ithaca, New York are his top choices.
“I would like to do something with chemical or nuclear engineering – something that I can use with alternative energy,” says Abejar, who is also taking an advanced calculus class at Stony Brook University, as he has surpassed his high school‘s highest level of math.
Last summer, Abejar studied at Stony Brook’s Department of Geosciences as part of the Simons research fellowship with 30 other students selected from across the country. It marked Abejar’s second summer at the university’s Geosciences Department. The year before, he examined ways to store radioactive chemicals or nuclear waste safely, with the same mentor, E. Troy Rasbury.
Landing among Intel’s finalists, Abejar says, gave him more confidence to believe in his talent.
“I was somewhat skeptical,” he admits. “I kept looking at other people’s projects, believing they have stronger records. I ended up having stronger records and a stronger research project.”
“I’m more confident now,” says Abejar, who describes himself as “ambitious, scholastic and outgoing.”