Article by Phoenix writer Brooke Oldenborg ’26:
Imagine standing in a room with 3.8 million students. That’s how many graduating seniors there are each year. Less than 1% of these students get to become finalists in the National Merit Scholarship program. This however, was no match or concern for senior Michelle Paszek.
As a junior, it was time for Michelle to participate in the daunting task of the PSAT/SAT season. On a cold October school day in 2022, Michelle took her PSAT and succeeded with flying colors. She did so well in fact, that she was chosen out of 1.5 million participants in this exam to become a semifinalist in the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) Program.
Without surprise, she excelled just as much on her SAT, and after filling out the NMSC application, she became a finalist despite the frightening odds of one getting this title.
Michelle’s participation in Kellenberg started in just sixth grade, when she innocently joined the Robotics club, unaware of how far she would excel. By her sophomore year, Michelle became team captain of the club, playing a vital role in designing, coding, and building robots to be later used at competitions.
Behind every Kellenberg-built robot, whether it launched balls into goals, scored rings on goal posts, or spun rollers on a field, there was Michelle and her love for the designing and engineering of robotics.
As just a freshman, Michelle joined the PhoenixOnline Newspaper, and by the end of her first year, she became an editor. In true Michelle fashion, she continued to work hard, and four years later, Michelle is now editor-in-chief, writing articles, feature stories, and opinion pieces.
All this hard work did not go unnoticed. On February 16th at the Adelphi Quill Awards, Michelle won first place for the “Most Outstanding Reporter” award.
Michelle’s achievements do not end there however. She is also an avid participant in the Communications club responsible for the AM and PM announcements every day. After working her way up, Michelle is now a producer in this club and often has to read the morning announcements on camera for the whole school to see.
When asked if this was intimidating, Michelle wisely answered, “Taking that first step into the unknown is one of the most powerful and rewarding actions a person can do.”
And if that wasn’t enough, it would be remiss to not mention that Michelle received the Bausch + Lomb Honorary Science Award her junior year, which recognizes outstanding students in science. A year later, she was recruited for the Science Olympiad team just before regionals. As described, she competed “simply for the fun of it” but still managed to medal twice in Robot Tour and Forestry.
It may seem practically impossible for a student with this extracurricular workload to manage to still do well in school, but that is no problem for the seemingly unstoppable Michelle.
Despite the exponential workload Michelle took on, she is ranked first in her class – an exceptionally well-deserved title after all her hard work.
As her senior year comes to an end, Michelle is getting excited for her next chapter, attending Cornell University for engineering. Kellenberg will be sad to see such an outstanding role model leave, but without a doubt, she will go on to do great things in her future.
