Elizabeth Djajalie, a senior at Thunder Mountain High School, is among four winners of a $10,625 National Honor Society (NHS) Scholarship Award. The winners were chosen from nearly 17,000 applicants.
“Winning the NHS Scholarship showed me that my leadership was making a real impact,” she said in a prepared statement. “It gave me not only hope but certainty that my service was significant and would be carried on by countless students moving forward.”
Djajalie, a lifelong Juneau resident, has won a multitude of awards and other honors as a young leader in STEM, innovation, education and public communication:
• She founded the Alaska Science and Engineering Fair Student Spokespersons Board, raising over $15,000 for the statewide STEM nonprofit.
• The “Future Women of STEM Podcast” she launched, produced, and hosted which aired on public radio and has reached listeners on four continents via Spotify.
• She has conducted graduate-level research on environmental biotechnologies, and she most recently studied using environmental DNA metabarcoding and qPCR to detect, quantify, and conserve various Pacific salmon species. This project was recognized by the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Defense and Taiwan International Science Fair, among others.
• She has sung the national anthem for numerous community commemorations, performed with her orchestra at Carnegie Hall and received several art and writing awards.
• She is also a U.S. Senate Youth delegate, Regeneron STS Scholar, AIME qualifier, Distinguished Young Woman of Alaska, public radio guest host, student representative on the Juneau Board of Education and tennis state champion.
NHS is supported by its parent organization, the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), which also administers the National Association of Student Councils.
NHS awarded more than $2 million in scholarships to 600 high school seniors this year. Four of the top finalists were awarded a $10,625 scholarship for embodying the pillars of NHS membership: scholarship, service, leadership and character. The recipients of these awards are: Chase Hartman from Tampa, FL for Service; Jensen Coonradt from Oswego, IL for Leadership; and Aadya Gattu from Warrington, PA for Character. Twenty finalists received $5,625 and Ella Mayor from Simi Valley, CA earned the top $25,000 scholarship.
“These NHS scholarship winners are leaving behind an incredible legacy as they embark on their next adventure,” said NASSP CEO Ronn Nozoe. “Throughout their time in NHS, they’ve tackled challenges from child trafficking to health literacy, published critical work including poems, research and a children’s book, and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for worthy causes. Their tremendous efforts reflect what NHS is all about.”
