Thomas Notchick, OWTS Senior, Wins Rensselaer Medal

  

The Rensselaer Medal, the oldest prize of its kind in the US, is awarded by more than 3,900 secondary schools throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.  The award is given to students who have distinguished themselves in mathematics and science.  To be so honored a student must be a member of the junior class and the high school’s single most promising science and mathematics student.  Each medalist who is accepted and subsequently enrolls at Rensselaer receives a scholarship of $60,000 payable in four yearly awards of $15,000 each.  Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1824, is the nation’s oldest technological university.
 

At Wolcott Technical High School, Mr. Notchick is a member of the Industrial Electronics shop.  He ranks first out of 188 senior students.  He was initially informed that he was a medal winner at the school’s annual Awards Night back in May.  He also ranks at the top of his class in science and math.

 

“I was very surprised when I was told I had won the Rensselaer Medal,” said Thomas recently.  “I had wanted to achieve this, but I was still surprised. “My brother David (OWTS class of 2008) won a similar scholarship to the University of Rochester in science and math.  I wanted to do better than that.  My parents were very pleased and congratulated me, but they also just expected this out of me.”

 

Thomas plans to major in engineering at RPI in the fall.  “There are thirteen types of engineering degrees that I could major in.  I’m not sure, which one I will choose.  I have a few ideas, but I’ll wait to see what I like.”