Local student gathers accolades and honors as she preps for
college
Mackenzie Donovan, a Hollister resident, exceeded the average
expectations of excellence even as a child. Adopted at birth into
the home of Ron and Tammi Donovan, Donovan has always been
considered
”
very special,
”
the mother said. At an early age Donovan learned how to read by
herself, excelling in home school and constantly striving to do her
best.
Local student gathers accolades and honors as she preps for college
Mackenzie Donovan, a Hollister resident, exceeded the average expectations of excellence even as a child. Adopted at birth into the home of Ron and Tammi Donovan, Donovan has always been considered “very special,” the mother said. At an early age Donovan learned how to read by herself, excelling in home school and constantly striving to do her best.
In fifth grade, Donovan and her mom heard about Johns Hopkins EPGY (Education Program for Gifted Youth), for which she applied and into which she was accepted. The program enabled her to take advanced classes in English and math. At the age of 12, Donovan received an award through the program for being a seventh-grader and scoring higher than the average college-bound senior on the high school SATs.
After debating whether Donovan should continue with a home schooling program or try regular high school classes, the family’s questions were answered when Tammi heard about the Stanford University EPGY Online High School program through the local news. The program works as an international independent school for gifted youth students from grades 7-12. The teachers are professors from Stanford, and “are incredible,” according to Donovan.
“They push you to your next level,” said Donovan, who described her classes as relatively small, some with 15 to 20 students. The classroom setting is a webcam and microphone set up in Donavan’s house, which gives the students the ability to instant message each other and have “lively conversation,” just like a regular class.
“It’s really, really interactive,” said Donovan, who described the class as its own room in and of itself. Donovan also described her peers as a “tight-knit group,” who all share a “like-minded hunger to achieve excellence.”
As a sophomore Donovan took classes in AP chemistry, AP music theory, AP calculus, Latin, a Stanford University level philosophy class, critical reading, rhetoric, and argumentation. She passed all of her AP tests and received straight A’s at the same time.
Donovan’s junior year was filled with some of the same excellence as she took classes in AP biology, AP language and composition, and AP calculus. She received a five on the AP tests for all three classes, the highest score for a college accredited test. She also took classes in AP U.S. history where she received a three on the AP test and Latin III/IV.
These achievements entitled Donovan as an AP Scholar Award recipient, earning the achievement of AP Scholar with Distinction for passing seven AP tests with a score average of at least 3.5 on all of her exams. Her 2009/2010 classes include AP English literature and composition, AP Latin and AP macroeconomics.
In 2009, her SAT scores of 760, 750, and 700 placed her in the top 1 percentile nationally for both critical reading and writing, and in the top sixth percentile for mathematics.
This week Donovan will be participating in the National Latin Exam in which she received a gold medal for outstanding performance in 2009. Donovan’s other awards include a Certificate of Honorable Merit “Summa Cum Laude,” and a second place award she received from Stanford’s annual Poetry Contest for 2009.
Tammi who described the Stanford online high’s school program as “a perfect fit,” for Donovan seems to have been right. Although her academic excellence separates Donovan from most people her age, she enjoys playing the piano and attending her local church youth group, just like most of her peers.
Donovan, who has applied to many of the Ivy league schools including Stanford, Princeton and Dartmouth, is also like many students her age in feeling that her future career aspirations are all kind of “up in the air.” Donovan who enjoys journalism, is also considering the medical field a possibility as her best friend suffers from a genetic disease, for which Donovan hopes to possibly one day find a cure.
As for the college transition being difficult, she said, “It’s a question that comes up a lot.”
Donovan considers the Stanford online high school program already like a “mini college.”
“I believe myself to be very well prepared,” Donovan said. “My school is teaching me how to learn globally.”
Despite her extremely rigorous coursework, Donovan stressed her well preparedness saying that people sometimes joke the Stanford program is like a “college before college.”
