Guyana-born teenager Keene Chin has been awarded a full four-year scholarship to the University of Texas where he will pursue a double major in Mechanical Engineering and Asian Studies and a minor in Computer Science.
Chin, recently graduated Magna Cum Laude from the esteemed Academy of Science and Technology (AST) at The Woodlands College Park High School in The Woodlands, Texas, USA.
The former student of Mae’s School in Georgetown, had managed to secure one of 70 coveted places at AST as a result of consistently high academic performance as well as his interests in music, science and engineering, his mother Heather Cato-Chin said in a release yesterday. AST is a member of the National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science and Technology.
Throughout high school, he received numerous academic accolades, including induction to both the National Honors Society and Middle School to College Scholarship program, nomination for the Rotary Student of the Year award and the conferral of the Rochester Institute of Technology Innovation and Creativity award.
He earned 2,250 points in the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) which placed him in the 99% percentile and earned him recognition as a National Merit Finalist and conferral of a National Achievement Scholarship award. He also achieved the Advanced Placement (AP) Scholar with Distinction award.
Outside of his academic endeavours, Chin was an integral part of the acclaimed Texas Torque 1477 robotics team that triumphed to win the World Robotics Championship in 2013 and the Chairman’s Award in the 2014 event.
The release said he credits his success to his birth mother, the late Samantha Daniels, who encouraged early reading and exploration and dreamt of a bright future for him; his grandmother, June Waldron and aunt, Giselle Albert, who provided much encouragement; his winning circle of friends; his amazing teachers and mentors at AST and most of all his parents David Chin and Heather Cato-Chin who set very high expectations, nurtured his ambitions with love and dedication to his success and provided the tools, time, commitment and counsel necessary to keep him engaged.
