Spotsylvania Seniors Prepare for the Next Step in Their Academic Careers
Georgia Tech and the University of Virginia are getting two of Spotsylvania's finest. Both are National Merit Scholarship semi-finalists, accomplished students, tennis players, and chess lovers.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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Deven Jani and Ryan Ho have a couple of interests in common, namely chess and tennis. They also share an academic accolade — both scored in the Top 1% of all PSAT test-takers in the state of Virginia, which makes them eligible for National Merit Scholarships.
They’re also both seniors who will be graduating this year from Spotsylvania County Public Schools. Jani is at Riverbend High School and will attend the University of Virginia this fall on a full-ride scholarship, while Ryan is at Massaponnax High School and will be attending Georgia Tech this fall.
Help Along the Way
To reach the pinnacle of anything — be it athletics, entertainment, or academics — raw talent is a component. But talent alone isn’t nearly enough. Both Jani and Ho have enjoyed important support from people in and outside of their families along the way.
Ho names his mother as one of the two important motivators in his life. “She’s always been there,” he told the Advance. “You can really tell that she cares about me, and that’s one of the reasons I want to succeed — so I can make her proud.”
Outside the family, Ho found a mentor in a retired mathematician and physicist who pushed him to reach higher goals. It started with chess, Ho said.
“He motivated me in chess to reach different goals, and then set new goals.” The lessons learned there, Ho said, “expanded to academics.” He “gave me a lot of books relating to math and physics,” Ho said. The vast majority of the books [in my collection] are from him.”
Jani’s parents have played a key role in his success. His father is a medical professional and his mother is an actuary. They have been there throughout his journey both modeling hard work and supporting his interests — namely, tennis. “My family emphasized hard work a lot,” Jani told the Advance. They also offered sound advice, like “putting my phone away in a different room.”
Jani also takes inspiration from the people he looks up to. In his case, it’s the tennis pro Roger Federer. “He talks about the importance of hard work,” Jani said, “and [he explains that ] effortlessness isn’t a real thing.”
That last point, in particular, is something that resonates with both young men.
Jani told the Advance that he understands how people might believe that math, which “makes sense” to him, comes easily. The reality, however, is that academic success is “a combination of hard work and talent. I am smart in math, but it comes with a lot of hard work” and using the intelligence one does have “to get better results.”
Ho agrees. “It’s easy to forget what goes on behind closed doors,” he told the Advance. People seeing students passing tests, but they “don’t see the effort they put in the night before.”
It’s important, he said, to “take into account the things that you don’t see.”
Lessons along the Way
One of the more-important skills that Jani learned early in his academic career was how to balance school, athletics, and friends. That didn’t come easily.
“I’m inside the Commonwealth’s Governors School,” he said, which carries with it elevated work loads. It took about year to really learn how to balance all the competing interests, he said. “It was particularly challenging in the Spring because tennis is a spring sport.”
Ho also maintains a busy schedule. He played on Massaponnax’s varsity boys’ tennis team for four year, plays first-chair violin in the school symphonic orchestra, and as a senior is taking five AP classes. He has maintained a straight-A average throughout his high school career.
Next Steps
Both Jani and Ho will attend prestigious and highly competitive universities this fall. Not unexpectedly, each had multiple schools to choose from.
For Jani, the choice came down to the University of Virginia or Cornell University. The full-ride scholarship at UVa made that decision a bit easier.
“I’m looking to major in commerce at the McIntire School,” he told the Advance, and “double-major in applied statistics.” His goal is to work in finance, but he is also considering working in the fields of biology and math.
Ho has committed to Georgia Tech, but also considered UVa, the University of Illinois, Virginia Tech, Virginia Commonwealth University, and George Mason University.
The Co-op program at Georgia Tech is what proved the determining factor for Ho. “The Co-op program allows me to take a semester to work a fulltime job related to my major with a company that partners with Georgia Tech. That offers learning opportunities as well as building connections in those companies as well.”
He plans on studying either electrical or computer engineering.
Another Shared Trait
In the Advance’s interviews with Jani and Ho, there was another trait the two shared that also accounts for their success — humility.
Both students are grounded, focused, and interested in always looking to expand their knowledge as well as the base of people they are learning from.
They’re also loathe to brag on themselves.
Instead, both are forward-focused, grounded, and ready to take on the next challenge.
As they prepare to depart, the words of Garrison Keller are appropriate: “Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.”
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