Vivian Lu, 16, recently won the Alexander Hamilton Scholar Award
Vivian Lu’s list of accomplishments continues to grow.
At age 16, the Cherry Hill High School East student has already established a nonprofit, founded a magazine and is working in a neuroscience lab at New York University’s School of Medicine.
Lu added another accolade in June when she received the Alexander Hamilton Scholar Award. She was one of 34 students in the nation to win the award, which recognizes academic achievement and community service.
“I was really excited,” Lu said, recalling the moment she found out about the honor. “It was great.”
“Our goal is to identify young people who have set high standards for citizenship and success in their lives,” said George T. Cox, founder and director of Alexander Hamilton Scholars, in a statement. “We are very excited about Vivian’s potential for future greatness. The Cherry Hill community is lucky to have Vivian as a resident.”
As part of the award, Lu is enrolled in a five-year program that includes four leadership conferences at various locations, including Seattle and Guatemala City.
The first of these “Leader Weeks” was held from July 14 to July 19 in New York. Lu, who is a rising senior, said she and the other students learned about empowerment, the college admissions process and had the opportunity to network.
Plus, the all-expenses paid trip included a Broadway show — Lu’s first — and a tour of a historic burial ground, Lu said.
Part of the reason why Lu won the award are her various initiatives aimed at helping people from underrepresented communities.
Lu speaks passionately about empowering youth of different socioeconomic backgrounds. The commitment stems from Lu’s personal experiences.
“When I was younger, my parents were not financially stable,” she said.
Lu said she lived with her grandparents for a time and remembers meeting other disadvantaged students in school. Lu said she and her friends never dreamed they could grow up and become scientists or writers.
“It just felt so wrong to me,” she said.
So, Lu decided to do something about it — or, rather, a number of things about it.
Last summer, she ran a free week-long science workshop for fifth-grade girls. Lu taught the class, which was called Equilibrium, and created the curriculum for the course. The idea was to encourage girls to enter science-related fields.
“I think the purpose of Equilibrium is to dispel myths about what you can and can’t do,” Lu said.
Lu said she is hoping to hold the class again this year after she completes her internship at NYU. Last summer, 14 girls participated, but Lu said she hopes to get even more students and utilize a larger space for the workshop.
“It was really just people I reached out to who I knew had children,” she added. “This year, I hope to expand it.”
In addition, Lu started “Bitter Melon” magazine with her friend last summer. The publication is designed to be an outlet for young writers from underserved communities.
“Most of the writing community is a little bit biased towards a certain demographic,” Lu said.
Lu also founded a nonprofit organization, The Axon Project, in April. The group is an online community of more than 2,500 students from 25 countries interested in learning more about neuroscience.
She said she thought of the idea after noticing quite a few students in one of her classes were interested in learning more about the brain.
After graduating from high school, Lu plans to attend college and double-major in neuroscience and comparative literature. Her interests range from poetry — she is the South Jersey Youth Poet Laureate — to computer code and synaptic plasticity.
“I’m really interested in the intersection of the sciences and the humanities,” Lu said. “They can’t exist without each other.”
