Announcing the Class of 2021 Black and Gold Award Winners!
The winners of the Black & Gold Awards for the Class of 2021 were announced on May 18 during our virtual Senior Awards Ceremony and we would like to congratulate Sarah Nelson and Suoyi Feng!
The most prestigious award issued to one male and one female graduating senior, the Black & Gold award recognizes students who are consistently compelling in their accomplishments; thoughtful and considerate toward others; and uncompromising in their commitment to being a model of excellence and force for good in and out of school. Sarah and Suoyi, you embody what it means to be a Patriot and we are so proud of all you have accomplished.
Sarah is a member of the National Art Honor Society, the National Spanish Honor Society, the Archbishop John Carroll Service Honor Society, and President of the National Honor Society. Sarah is committed to service, having accumulated over 860 hours through a variety of volunteer activities including a trip to the Dominican Republic where she helped build a house for a family. Sarah is a member of the John Carroll Swim Team, the Fallston Fins Summer Swim Team, and the Bel Air Athletic Club Swim team. Sarah has placed at the IAAM Championships for the past three years and has represented her club team at the state level. She has served as both the Maryland Swimming Senior Athlete Representative and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Zone Athlete Representative for USA Swimming. Sarah is also a dedicated girl scout, earning multiple awards including the prestigious Gold Award for her work creating coloring books for children at the John Hopkins Children Center. As a junior, Sarah received the Judith Resnik Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science. She has volunteered at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center, where most recently she worked with cancer patients in the oncology unit, and she has also shadowed at the Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery Lab. These experiences have contributed to Sarah’s plans to major in Biochemistry at Randolph-Macon College and attend medical school.
Hailing from China, Suoyi graduated first in his class. He is a member of the National Honor Society, an Archdiocesan Distinctive Scholar and an AP Scholar with distinction. He has earned First Honors for the past four years. In the Science Olympiad, Suoyi won multiple first and second place awards in a variety of areas. He is a member of the Model United Nations Club and Envirothon and, as a junior, received the Sigma XI Scientific research society award. Suoyi has interned at the Chinese Sturgeon Research Institute and at the Heilongjiang Lab. He was honored as an international biology scholar at the University of Toronto National Biology Competition, earned second place in the Maryland BioGENEius Challenge, and was awarded the Science & Technology Yau High School Science Award Bronze Medal for Biology. Impressively, Suoyi has been published for his independent research. He was the first author of manuscripts on Allergic Rhinitis and on Bladder Cancer and Atopic Diseases. He also co-authored a research project on the artificial propagation of Coreius guichenoti; a species of ray-finned fish. Not only has Suoyi’s own work been published, but he has also served as a reviewer for the journal Mini-Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry. In the fall, Suoyi will attend the University of California, Berkeley to major in Biology with a focus on the field of synthetic biology.
In addition to recognizing this year's winners, we would like to congratulate all of the finalists who were nominated for the highest honor a John Carroll senior can receive. The following seniors were also recognized as the Black and Gold Award finalists for the Class of 2021 for their outstanding achievements: Kelsie Barnard, Roman Hemby, Eliana Hollin, Eric Schall, Ryan Vest and Giovanna Ward.