Watching Boston City Council President Michelle Wu in action today, most people would guess she'd been a consummate politician all her life. Not so. A political career was the farthest thing from her mind in 2003, when she was named a U. S. Presidential Scholar from Illinois. Although she planned to attend Harvard, she was unsure of a particular career path. “I would never have predicted that I would be in politics," she said. "Even if someone had asked me to make a short list of careers I could see myself in, politics wouldn’t have been on that list.”

Dr. Michael Weiss (1975, OH) quickly realized that in order to get to the future—a future with advances in insulin that would benefit the poor and most vulnerable—he would have to go back to school. With a MD, PhD (both from Harvard University), and a full professorship already in hand, Weiss took a two-year sabbatical from teaching biochemistry at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine to earn an MBA at the CWRU Weatherhead School of Management.

 "At the beginning of my journey, I didn't know what a Presidential Scholar was," says Arts Scholar Rachel Moore (CA, 1982). But she soon learned and turned her nationally recognized talent into a preeminent career—first as a dancer with the American Ballet Theatre and later as the Theatre's executive director and CEO. Today she's President and CEO of The Music Center in Los Angeles.

Kathy earned a bachelor’s from Cornell and a PhD from Rutgers. After teaching political science at the University of Vermont, Kathy joined the staff of CBS News, where she served as the point person for the network’s polling branch and for its collaboration with The New York Times poll (the oldest print/broadcast polling partnership in the United States).

K. Tsianina Lomawaima (known as Kimberly Carr when she was a Scholar from Ohio in 1972) is a prominent Native American academic and author who has earned national recognition for her landmark books, To Remain an Indian (Outstanding Book Award, American Educational Research Association); and They Called It Prairie Light (North American Indian Prose Award, American Educational Association Critics’ Choice Award).

For Clara Shih (2000, IL), the Presidential Scholars National Recognition Program was a life-changing experience. One fellow Scholar became her college roommate and a best friend for life. Another became a partner in a venture capital firm that has now invested in Clara’s enterprise software company, Hearsay Social.

From high school shot-putter to critically acclaimed writer. It's not a self-portrait many people paint, but Sam Lipsyte (Arts Scholar, 1986, NJ) seldom colors inside the lines. He insists he's just an ordinary guy, but his life tells a different story.

Presidential Scholars are a diverse group, but they share one thing in common: each attains an outstanding measure of achievement at an early age. Few, however, can match internationally acclaimed cellist Bion Tsang (1984, NY) who was much younger than most when his talents were recognized.

Merrick Garland (1970, IL) is Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He was appointed to the court in 1997 and was named Chief Judge in February 2013. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Garland has spent the majority of his career in public service, serving as Special Assistant to the Attorney General (1979-1981), Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia (1989-1992),

To the world, Matt Anestis is an international leader in business and finance. To Presidential Scholars, he’s a 1991 honoree from Connecticut and a founder of our Alumni Association.

Maria Filsinger Interrante (2012, MN) entered the spotlight in the scientific community in August 2015 as part of the groundbreaking research team at the Stanford Smolke Laboratory that created chemically synthesized yeast and bioengineered opioids with the potential to rewrite and reduce the story of pain around the globe.