Twelfth Grade: Ian Matthew Stephens

Published online on Friday, May. 16, 2008

Sunnyside academic counselor Diana Rodriguez, who nominated Ian Stephens for Academic All-Stars, describes him as humble and wise beyond his years.

"He's very sensitive to others and their needs and will be quick to make himself available -- without making a big hoopla," she said.

Nothing illustrates that like Ian's recent decision to cut off his ponytail, which he sported throughout high school, and donate it to Locks of Love, an organization that provides hairpieces to children who lose their hair while undergoing medical procedures.

Ian shrugs off the idea that it was an extraordinary gesture.

"I had no plans for my hair -- it just sort of grew on my head," he said. "It was an opportunity to cut it without it going into a trash bin somewhere."

Ian, first in his class of 669, is an avid guitarist who's played in just about every student band Sunnyside has to offer. He sees connections between jazz and the engineering studies he plans to tackle at the University of Pennsylvania during the next four years.

"There's a certain demand for an aesthetic beauty through technical brilliance in the music," said Ian, who's not sure yet of his career path. "Engineering is this creative process. If you have a problem you don't understand, you find a way to understand it, which is mathematical."

Rodriguez organizes an annual tour, which Ian attended twice, to give promising minority students a shot at attending Ivy League schools. But she's certain who got the better of the deal when he decided where he wanted to go to college.

"Penn is stinking lucky to have him," Rodriguez said.

-- Don Mayhew