Whiz Kid: Armstrong's Junchi Vang is a National Award Winner

Do you know a great kid volunteering in your community... or did your local soccer team take the championship? They may be our next Patch "Whiz Kid" honorees.  Nominate your whiz kid by sending an email to the editor.

This week we're celebrating an Armstrong High School student who is exceeding everyone's expectations.  Robbinsdale Area Schools communications director Tia Clasen explains why Junchi Vang deserves a pat on the back.  Way to go, Junchi!

Junchi Vang will become the first in his family of thirteen to attend college, and he will not have to agonize over how to get there.  Junchi was selected this week as a Dell Scholar, a national program that recognizes potential and celebrates hard work and determination to achieve great things through higher education – something Junchi has proven over and over again as an AVID student at l in the .  He was one of only 22 Minnesota students to receive this scholarship.

Junchi, like the other Dell Scholar winners, had to complete an extensive 17-page application in which, along with his transcripts, he had to describe his goals, work habits, family, dreams, and obstacles he’d overcome. 

His AVID teacher, Anne Beaton, witnesses weekly his drive to succeed – but not at the expense of his care toward others.  “In AVID, Junchi consistently maintains a high level of focus on his own learning and works to elevate the thinking of his classmates – especially during tutorials, where it is clear that he cares about the achievement of others,” Beaton explained. 

Before he came to this country five years ago from Thailand, Junchi picked peanuts on a farm for thirteen cents a day, as his parents could not pay for him to attend school.  Now, he is not only a student, but recently became a U.S. citizen.   With this scholarship, Junchi will receive $20,000 to complete his studies over six years at a four-year college or university, and he will receive a mentor and a support network once he is in school. 

Besides being in the AVID program at Armstrong, Junchi is also in Admission Possible, an after-school program that works in tandem with AVID.  Both have contributed the solid foundation upon which Junchi will build success in future academics.  He was accepted to five schools and is debating between the University of Minnesota, Augsburg, and St. John’s University.

 AVID – Advancement Via Individual Determination – is a college-readiness system designed to increase the number of underrepresented students at four-year colleges, including first-generation college-bound, like Jang Chee.  The program has a simple formula – raise the expectations of students, and with support, they will rise to the challenge.  The AVID program is in both middle schools and both high schools in the Robbinsdale Area Schools.