Saratoga News

Charles Chang

Saratoga senior tapped for Academy

Charles Chang, a senior at Saratoga High School, is being sponsored by Valley Fair Shopping Center and its parent company, the Hahn Company, to attend the American Academy of Achievement June 27-29 in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Chang, a National Merit semifinalist, is an academic mentor, member of the Science Bowl and Academic Championship team, president of the Math Club, president of the California Scholarship Federation and secretary of Junior Statesmen of America.

In his spare time, he volunteers for the Salvation Army and the Odd Fellows Retirement Home, as well as playing for several Bay Area symphony orchestras. He plans on attending Stanford University and studying medicine.

At the all-expense-paid academy, Chang will have a chance to talk about politics with TV newsman Sam Donaldson, to hear Janet Jackson sing, to meet Bosnian relief mission commander Admiral Jeremy Michael Boorda, to watch a skating performance by Scott Hamilton and to discuss the environment with 1995 Nobel Prize winner Mario J. Molina, Ph.D.

Chang is among six students chosen for the honor, sponsored by local shopping centers including Oakridge Mall and Sunnyvale Town Center.

Others are: Benjamin Mossawir, a student at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose; Laurie Eldridge of Gunderson High School; Paul Oddou of Santa Teresa High School; Brynne Lazarus of Fremont High School and Joann Liao of Lynbrook High School.

Nominated by area principals, the six students reflect scholastic aptitude, participation in sports, community service, clubs and student to government.

The academy was founded in 1961 by Hy Peskin, a Life Magagine photographer, who thought it would be fascinating to get extraordinary celebrities, inventors and explorers together to inspire young people with dreams of achievement in a world of boundless opportunity.

Some 50 men and women of accomplishment have been invited to talk to some 325 of the nation's top high school honor students.