Whiz Kid: Evan Lanese

Cleveland Heights Whiz Kid of the Week: Evan Lanese

• Senior at
• Will go on a 24-day research trip in Greenland this summer
• Co-founded the Environmental Club at the high school

As summer quickly approaches, graduating high school seniors are champing at the bit to spend the next three months resting up for their next journey into college.

Evan Lanese has a different plan.

The 18-year-old will join a team in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, doing atmospheric and geological research for 24 days in July. Lanese had to undergo a highly competitive application process to be selected for the trip. He will join 25 other teens, 10 each from Greenland and Denmark and five from the United States, he said.

“I like the environment,” said Lanese, about what compelled him to apply. “I was a Boy Scout, and I just like hiking and the outdoors. I’ve always just been playing in my back yard and lifting up rocks. Just seeing what’s going on in the world.”

He said his interest in the environment was sparked when he was very young, playing in the woods behind property his mom’s side of the family owned on the Finger Lakes in Upstate New York.

When he got to high school, he co-founded the Environmental Club, which has been working on turning green space around the former Taylor Academy building into a community garden and a field study area for science classes.

A friend of his heard about the Greenland opportunity through science teacher Jim Miller, who , the same program that is sponsoring the Greenland trip.

Lanese said he’s excited about the opportunity and hopes that it helps him figure out what to study when he attends Case Western Reserve University in the fall.

“Of course in the past I’ve always liked the environment, and I’ve wanted to go into something related to that, but maybe something more specific, like do I really like geological research or I was thinking maybe about going into engineering,” he said.

Kangerlussuaq, a town in southwestern Greenland, is home to about 550 people, as well as the Sondrestrom Upper Atmospheric Research Facility, in and around which Lanese will be spending much of his time. He’ll miss out on the long-awaited Cleveland summer because temperatures will range between 41 and 64 degrees while he’s there.

Everything will be paid for through the program, including travel, food and lodging expenses, Lanese said. It will be his first trip outside the United States and Canada.

Do you know a Whiz Kid? Send your nominations to Cleveland Heights Patch editor Michelle Simakis.