Summerville area's top-ranked graduates profiled

KRISTEN MCMULLEN

Pinewood Prep's 2008 valedictorian Brielle Weinstein (left) and classmate Alexandra Ginsburg during their May 24 commencement.

DAVID BOWERS

Summerville High School's 2008 valedictorian, Brian Bowers, receives his diploma from school Principal Roger Edwards.

EDWARD C. FENNELL
The Post and Courier

Brian Bowers, the 2008 valedictorian for Summerville High School, is gifted in music as well as in math and science. He has taught music and advanced calculus and performed an original piano piece at his graduation ceremony.

They were outstanding scholars and citizens at three different high schools and are aiming for highly divergent futures. But all three valedictorians are multifaceted, highly motivated, goal-oriented, generous, friendly — and are at their best when extremely busy.

The top-ranked graduates from Summerville High School, Fort Dorchester High School and Pinewood Preparatory School all are carrying out plans for their last summer before going off to college.

Pinewood Prep's Brielle Weinstein will continue coaching swim teams while preparing to begin her college career at Washington and Lee University. She intends to become a doctor.

Summerville High School's Brian Bowers has begun a research project at Clemson University, his college choice. His experiences at teaching and tutoring while still a student have persuaded him to become a professor, likely in math, science or engineering.

The highlight of the summer for Fort Dorchester High School's Kathryn Salkowski was a June trip to Washington, D.C., and the White House. As one of the nation's 139 Presidential Scholars for 2008, she met President Bush, and in response to his inquiry, told him she'll be ready when flights to Mars depart.

Salkowski, 18, a daughter of John and Patricia Salkowski, will continue coaching swimming this summer and enter the University of Pennsylvania in the fall. She plans to double major in business and engineering and hopes to solve riddles that will unlock the energy sources of the future.

In Washington, Salkowski and the other scholars received medals at the Kennedy Center and posed in front of the White House with the president. Salkowski was one of eight scholars to whom Bush spoke individually.

"He shook my hand, and he asked where I was from and where I was going to school," Salkow-ski said. "Then he mentioned his idea to place a space station on the moon and launch Mars missions from there. He asked, 'Are you going to be there?' I called out, 'You can count me in!' "

Salkowski said she and the other scholars often chatted in their hotel rooms until the wee hours of the morning.

"Our topics of conversation ranged from the different types of fencing, the practicality of future space missions, steroid use in horse racing, the nature of infinity, swim-team coaching techniques and Stirling engines (revolutionary external heat engines). It was truly an amazing and eye-opening experience," she said.

Weinstein, a daughter of Eric and Marianne Weinstein, said competitive swimming and coaching swimming have been a huge part of her life. She said a lifetime of early morning practices taught her discipline and gave her the self-motivation and determination she needed to succeed in other areas. She hopes to continue swimming competitively in college.

Being valedictorian was her goal since she was a sophomore, she said. Her favorite subjects in school have been biology, math and Spanish.

Her father is a doctor and an inspiration for her to become a pediatrician, she said. The 18-year-old Weinstein said one reason she chose Washington and Lee is its coziness, with about 2,200 students. But when it comes time to do her hospital residency, she wants a different experience.

"I really want to go to a big city — New York, Miami or Los Angeles — for the experience. I have never really lived in a big city," she explained.

Bowers, 18, a son of David and Renee Bowers, said his favorite subjects are math, science, engineering and music. Finishing top in his graduating class, Bowers participated in Summerville's marching and jazz bands. He was on the school's math team and taught and tutored piano, math and calculus.

Bowers plays and composes for piano, saxophone and violin, and at his graduation, rather than deliver the traditional valedictorian speech, Bowers performed a piano piece he composed.

He helped create an outline for the instruction of advanced calculus and taught it. Teaching, he said, helps one "understand things better yourself." He appreciates teaching for "the combined impact of all the people you can influence," he said. "It's more than just what you can do with that knowledge."

Bowers headed to Clemson last week to join in a summer research project called "Fuzzy Logic and Computational Science." The project involves training computers to think more like humans and reach conclusions that are not always just true or false, but based on percentages inside the gray areas between true and false, he said.

At his graduation, Bowers said farewell to his classmates with these words of advice: "Break the mold. Defy convention. If you use what you've been given, you will be a blessing, and you will be blessed."

Reach Edward C. Fennell at 745-5865 or efennell@postandcourier.com.