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CARMIEL SCHICKLER, Intel Science Search
2006 Legacy Award Winner
Carmi Schickler was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin but raised on Long Island in Port Washington, New York. As a student at Paul D. Schreiber High School, Carmi has participated in numerous activities, including serving as the Vice President of the National Honor Society. Carmi was also a co-founder of his school's branch of the Future Business Leaders of America club, and has served as the club's treasurer for the past three years.
Carmi was named a finalist in the 2006 Intel Science Talent Search after submitting a political science project in the Behavioral and Social Sciences category. Carmi explored and retested Doran's power-cycle theory, which argues that nations behave predictably and with war-like tendencies when undergoing major shifts in relative power. Carmi showed that between 1700 and 1920, all levels of violent conflict, not just major war, became more likely for the nine most powerful nations in the world. The chance for conflict also increased further when these shifts in relative power were accompanied by changes in national leadership.
Ultimately, Carmi hopes to develop a Conflict Alert System that would help predict and prevent violent conflict 6 to 24 months in advance of the possible triggering events. His work was conducted between November 2004 and November 2005 with the help of Dr. Peter Brecke from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and under the guidance of Dr. David O'Connor, his Social Science Research teacher at Schreiber High School. Carmi was selected by the other finalists to be the Glenn T. Seaborg Award speaker at the Science Talent Search Awards Banquet, an honor given to the student who best represents a commitment to scientific cooperation and communication.
Carmi has received various awards for his historical research and essay writing. In 2005, Carmi was named as the New York state winner in the National Peace Essay Contest, sponsored annually by the United States Institute of Peace, for his essay contrasting democratization efforts in Weimar Germany and Lithuania. In October, Carmi was named the National Grand-Prize Winner in the National Endowment for the Humanities' annual Idea of America Essay Contest.
Carmi is an avid sports fan who looks forward to following the Cardinal while he attends Stanford University next year. The son of Rabbi Stanley Schickler and Ms. Lucy Effron, Carmi hopes to one day pursue a career in politics.
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GAYATRI DATAR, Phillips Brooks House, Harvard
2006 Legacy Award Winner
Gayatri Datar is a member of the Class of '07-'08 at Harvard College studying development economics. She has grown up in Pittsburgh, PA, Stanford, CA, and most recently Weston, MA. While at Harvard she serves as the Chair of the South Asian Women's Collective, Assistant Director of Harvard Bhangra, and enjoys playing tennis, dancing, and watching the Red Sox, most important and meaningful to her are her public service activities.
She decided to defer the Spring Semester of 2005 to travel to India and do Tsunami relief work in Cuddalore, a devastated district of Tamil Nadu (a state in India). She worked with a local NGO named BLESS, where she helped conduct need assesments, wrote funding proposals, assisted the staff in developing projects, documented the progress of the villages, and worked and collaborated with various international aid agencies. It was in India where she discovered her passion for disaster relief and development.
Upon returning to Harvard, she used the experience and skills she gained in India to add value to the public service activities she was involved with previous to leaving Harvard. As the director of the Fresh Pond Enrichment Program under the Phillips Brooks House Association, she spent a year and a half conducting a need-assessment to ensure that the program was in fact meeting the needs of Cambridge. Upon realizing that there was a much greater need for a program developing "life-skills" such as self-confidence, communication, teamwork, and decision making, she and her co-director revamped the Fresh Pond Enrichment Program to found the Harvard College Youth Leadership Institute. The pilot program was extremely successful, and Gayatri looks forward to expanding the program in the fall.
In response to the disaster of Hurricane Katrina, the Phillips Brooks House Association sponsored a new initiative to send trips of students to do relief work. Gayatri lead one of these trips to New Orleans in January. She and her trip did work in the Benjamin Franklin Elementary School, working with children, painting classrooms, and any other tasks the local leadership needed help with. She was asked to coordinate all of the trips for Spring Break, and joined one of the trips in gutting houses and getting footage for a documentary. She tried to ensure that the trips were more than just a one-week event, by keeping the participants well-informed as to the context in which they were working and being respectful of the underlying issues facing the residents.
Gayatri will be spending the summer in Nambia, India, and possibly Nicaragua working for various NGOs and the World Bank, and hopes to find a topic for her thesis. While she isn't sure what she'll be doing when she graduates, she is certain it will be in the field of development. She strongly values and believes in the importance of innovation and creativity when it comes to developing effective policies to address the many issues in the third world.
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MAHAN ESFAHANI, Longy School of Music
2006 Legacy Award Winner
Born in Tehran, Iran, Mahan Esfahani grew up in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area and from childhood was surrounded by music, literature, and the intense study of history and languages. His experience as an immigrant to this country was formative in the early development of a strong work ethic and philosophy of perseverance.
Mahan attended the International Baccalaureate Program of Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, MD, where his main areas of academic study were in European history, music theory and composition, and French language and literature. Privately, he studied piano with Carolyn Booth, with whom he also studied music history, theory, score-reading, and figured bass; he was also an active member of the drama community and was the captain of his high school's successful It's Academic Team. During his junior year in high school, he appeared as a guest on the Metropolitan Opera's popular opera quiz broadcast and was a composer-in-residence for the Met's Composing Original Opera program.
A Stanford President's Scholar, Mahan majored in Musicology and Theory with a minor in History while pursuing studies in early music performance and performance practice with Elaine Thornburgh (harpsichord), Herbert Myers (Renaissance Music), George Houle, Heather Hadlock, and Adam Gilbert (musicology). While at Stanford, he served as a research assistant to Professor Hadlock, was a recipient of two major university research grants, and presented papers on Medieval Islamic music theory and keyboard intabulations in the Buxheimer Orgelbuch (c. 1465). In June of 2005 he finished his B.A. honors thesis, "Johann Simon Mayr's Ginevra di Scozia (1801) and the Classical Aesthetic in Early Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera Seria," a two-year study which included an edition of scenes from an early manuscript of an opera by this unjustly little-known composer.
He then began an active professional career as a performer on historical keyboards. As a member of the award-winning Renaissance ensemble Ciaramella, he has researched and performed organ music from the 15th and early 16th centuries; Ciaramella's recording debut, "Sacred and Secular Music of Renaissance Germany," is currently available on Naxos records. Since his junior year at Stanford, he has appeared at major early music festivals and concert series throughout the States with a number of professional ensembles in music ranging from the Middle Ages to the Classical period on a variety of early keyboards. He plans numerous solo and ensemble appearances on the West Coast and Canada, the preparation of a critical edition of the six violin and continuo sonatas of Georg Philip Telemann, and a major recording endeavor surveying the complete harpsichord and organ works of English composer John Bull (c. 1562-1628), the "Liszt of his age," for the Musica Omnia label with collaborator and mentor Peter Watchorn.
Currently a candidate in the Artist Diploma program at the Longy School of Music, he is pursuing studies in early keyboards with Peter Sykes. Influenced by the theories and teachings of Johann Simon Mayr and Leo Tolstoy, Mahan has a particular interest in the philosophy and history of aesthetics and moral and ethical claims made on behalf of art and music in the modern world.
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NATHANIEL V. STEVENS, Wharton School
2006 Legacy Award Winner
Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Nathaniel Stevens was always interested in creating things; whether it was a piece of art, a winning sports team, or a musical composition.
During his time at Amity High School in Woodbridge Connecticut, Nathaniel was involved in both the fine arts and music programs. In 11th grade, Nathaniel won the Connecticut Congressional Art Award in the school's Honors art program, and was an avid pianist and percussionist in a classic rock and blues band. Nathaniel was also an All-State lacrosse player and varsity soccer team captain.
At the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Nathaniel is concentrating in finance and management. While at Wharton, he has been a keen member of the entrepreneurship and technology community. In 2005, Nathaniel's acceptance into Wharton's Venture Initiation Program began the process of turning creative ideas into commercial realities. Last fall, Nathaniel was selected ÒTop 20 Entrepreneurs Under 25" by BusinessWeek magazine for founding and managing his fast growing internet startup, Natpal.com. Nathaniel has also recently participated in an academic seminar for this years' Wharton Business Plan Competition called ÒMeet the VC" and led a discussion on entrepreneurship and innovation at Penn's Phi Gamma Nu Business Fraternity.
As CEO and Founder of Natpal, Nathaniel is responsible for making Natpal a leader in its industry, driving innovation, and fostering creativity throughout the company. Natpal is headquartered in downtown Philadelphia and has already expanded to Washington, DC, metro area. He anticipates that Natpal will quickly become a national and maybe even international company.
Nathaniel feels that entrepreneurship and business blend creativity and practicality very well, offering a unique mix of theory with practice. He enjoys putting academic theory and knowledge into practice and developing new and innovative ways to help contribute to society.
Nathaniel's favorite Benjamin Franklin quote:
"Well done is better than well said."
-Benjamin Franklin
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BLAIR ALEXANDER, JR.,
Duke Ellington School of the Arts
2006 Legacy Award Winner
Born in Bethesda, Maryland, Blair Alexander Jr. has been surrounded by instrumental, choral and religious music throughout his life. Each of these experiences has impacted on his development and love for music. He began piano lessons while at elementary school and was quickly recognized as an astute student by his instructors, developing his knowledge and interest in the piano. He received the prestigious Beethoven Award for musical excellence and many other awards while performing in piano recitals and choral events. Blair has accompanied students in the Maryland State Solo and Ensemble Festival and participated in the Ann Arundel County Choral Festival.
Currently Blair is studying at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington D.C. under Dr. Hae Won Moon. He has performed pieces by Chopin, Bach, Rachmaninoff, and Liszt, and he represented the Duke Ellington School at the Brazilian American Cultural Institute and on tour in Barbados.
Recently, Blair was awarded the National Society of Arts and Letters Certificate of Merit for Excellence in the Arts in Cooperation with the Kennedy Center. He has won first place in the Washington D.C. area annual Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Talent Hunt competition for the past two years. In addition, Blair also won the regional talent hunt competition and will represent the regional area in a national level competition later this year in Little Rock, Arkansas. Blair has competed in the annual Washington D.C. Piano Competition and continues to perform in other venues.
Blair has also participated in the Gifted and Talented Advance Study Program at the U.S. Naval Academy. He won first place at the South River High School Annual Science and Engineering Fair and was invited to participate in the Ann Arundel County Regional Science and Engineering Fair and the Bowie State University Science, Engineering and Math Invitation. He is an active member of the Argonne Hills Chapel at Fort Meade, where he is the Vice President of the Youth Council, and a member of the Young Adult Choir and the Youth Bible Study.
Blair has been inducted into the National Honor Roll Society and has been recognized by national organizations such as the Congressional Student Leadership Conference, the National Student Leadership Conference, the National Society of High School Scholars and Who's Who Among American High School Students. Blair plans to further his studies in music and the sciences at college either at Yale or at Morehouse College.
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