Life no cakewalk for Harvard-bound East Kingston, NH boy (news item)

Colleges & Universities Harvard University
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<p>"EAST KINGSTON - Gordon Powers is not just any high-school graduate. The Harvard-bound teenager received a total of five awards at his graduation from Phillips Exeter Academy Sunday - as well as a classical diploma reflecting his expertise in Greek and Latin.</p>

<p>Only 22 out of 300 PEA graduates received this special diploma, which was presented in Latin and described by Powers as “a lot of work” to reach.</p>

<p>These were high accomplishments for any high-school student, but Powers’ were that much sweeter in the face of a hearing and speech impairment.</p>

<p>Powers, an East Kingston resident, was born with moderate hearing loss and a type of muscular dystrophy that results in some impaired speech. But he wasn’t about to let that stop him. After attending public schools through eighth-grade in Stratham, he became a day student at PEA.</p>

<p>“I overcame many obstacles, especially at PEA,” he said. “It was a lot of work, but I got a lot out of it, too…” </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/exeter/06172005/news/48104.htm[/url]”>http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/exeter/06172005/news/48104.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Amazing. Look forward to seeing him on campus next year. Philips Exeter Academy… one of the top 5 students? Wow. That’s some smart kid. :)</p>

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<p>In my class, we had the overall #1 and #2 Exeter students, as well as the #1 graduate of the Classics program there. #1 got his A.B. summa cum laude in applied math AND an M.S. in the field in his first four years at Harvard and took only four more years to get his PhD there, whereupon he was immediately appointed to the faculty at a top-6 business school. #2 graduated summa cum laude with only 1 A-minus on her record and then was off to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Classics #1 graduated summa cum laude in Classics (he had one B+ in his four years, in Computer Science), gave the Latin Oration at Commencement, and then went on to Goldman Sachs and HBS.</p>

<p>In other words, hell yes, those are some smart kids. There aren’t many high schools that are such reliable predictors of future success. If you’re a star at Exeter, you’re going to be a superstar anywhere.</p>

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<p>What impressed me is that he seems to have had to work harder than most to overcome his handicaps. It is inspiring to others similarly situated, as is the “Emily” series in the Boston Globe recently.</p>

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<p>Yes the “Emily” series is very inspiring.</p>

<p>Ah! Awesome to think that these are the kids I’m going to school with.</p>