Neo Alpha (12) picks up an empty shampoo bottle. Using YouTube videos for guidance, he carefully adds in spray sunscreen and whipped cream propellant to work as fuel and oxidizers. He lights it. Pop! Taking notes and making some calculations, he swaps in a larger bottle and more concentrated fuels. He lights the rocket, and it vaults across the room with a bang. 

Neo’s interest in chemistry started in third grade when he started watching the YouTube channel NurdRage. In middle school, he set up bottle rockets at home and conducted his own experiments. He also self-studied for the US National Chemistry Olympiad to further his interest. In the Physical Sciences club at Harker, Neo spearheaded a project to make a glow stick from common raw materials. 

“There are lots of technological problems that need chemistry to be solved, like batteries, rocket propulsion, medicine, agriculture, fertilizers,” Neo said. “There are so many great ways to improve the world with chemistry. My uncle is a cancer researcher and he said to me, ‘The world will always have a need for chemists to do things even if the thing that the chemists are doing is always changing.’”

Chemistry teacher Dr. Casey Brown met Neo during the summer AP Chemistry course and supervises his initiatives for the Physical Sciences club. Dr. Brown admires Neo’s dedication to chemistry and his willingness to plan out the glow stick synthesis on his own.

“It’s hard not to be excited about chemistry when somebody around you is as excited as Neo is,” Dr. Brown said. “He basically tried to design an opportunity for himself to do some of the stuff he’s reading about, for his own interest. There’s more of the go-getter characteristics that’s required to do that than there is to take a class or join a lab. You have to have genuine initiative and imagination.”

Neo brings that same initiative to his position on the Honor Council, where he aims to broaden the scope of the council’s duties to hear student cases. He also pushed for more transparency in the council’s actions and believes that transparency and increased initiatives like Honor Week will help the council to serve the Harker community more fully.

“I wanted the council to work on actual regulatory aspects,” Neo said. “The only reason why I’m in Honor Council is because I think that I can do something that makes it more useful to the community. I’d be dissatisfied with just sitting in the position and accepting the status quo as it is. I’d rather make some big change that benefits people.”

Trisha Iyer (12), who’s in the same advisory as Neo, admires his resolve. She sees his actions at school dances as an example of his dedication to his work.

“He feels obligated to show up to dances because he’s on Honor Council,” Trisha said. “He will go to the quiet room with a folder of chemistry worksheets and he’ll be doing them. I like seeing those moments because I respect the hustle; being so unapologetically into something that what may seem boring or homework to other people is your bread and butter.”

Neo believes that the skills he learned managing the Honor Council can help with political activism in the future. Already, he pushes for change through his position as President of the Civil Discourse club. He aspires to combat political polarization by initializing discussions that include all aspects of the political spectrum at Harker.

“I’d be disappointed if I lived a politically inactive life,” Neo said. “Having the opportunity to think critically about the foundations of my viewpoints is a great opportunity. The main reason why the club’s valuable is being able to learn more from the people that we’re surrounded by. Understand that there are differences more than we might initially be willing to believe or assume.”

Civil Discourse vice president Iris Fu (12) collaborates with Neo in their political activism and policy work around school. They value Neo’s willingness to improve set institutions like the Honor Council to reach his goals.

“He’s a really passionate person and it’s not something you see all the time, someone who wants to do something outside of the institutional space that they’re already occupying,” Iris said. “He’s always been somebody who’s been more goal-oriented. Once when he wants to get something done, he will get it done for sure. That’s something I appreciate about him.”

Going forward, Neo plans to further his interests in chemistry and political science through his own studies and activism. He strives to help people through his work.

“The awards are useless unless I do something with what I learned from the awards to help other people,” Neo said. “My interests have brought me intellectually stimulating opportunities to hopefully improve somebody’s life at some point, whether it be immediate term with Honor Council or through Civil Discourse Club or maybe the prospect of making the miracle something as a chemist 30 years down the line.”