By Diana Brement,
JTNews Columnist
Ari Livne of Mercer Island was named a Presidential Scholar in the arts last month. Ari, who just graduated from Lakeside School, explained to me that the award is an honor and also an opportunity.
Most Presidential Scholars are nominated through SAT scores, but arts scholars are chosen through a program that emphasizes performance.
In order to qualify, Ari — a classical pianist — applied for and was accepted to youngARTS Week, a highly competitive contest held by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts in Florida in January.
“I applied… because it’s a really good opportunity in and of itself,” explained Ari, “not to be a Presidential Scholar.”
Sixty competitors were nominated and 20 were accepted.
Ari has had a busy senior year applying to colleges, keeping up his grades, and traveling to New York twice a month to study with his piano teacher. He’s heading to Yale in the fall after making a difficult decision not to attend conservatory (he was also accepted at Julliard).
“The decision was to go to a school that would offer me a lot of opportunities in a lot of areas,” he says. “I’m not going to be a music student. I’m going to take academic classes and music will be everything else.”
He’s not committing to any career decisions yet, but he might major in biology and possibly consider medical school. “I also want to perfect my piano playing,” he says, and he’ll continue to enter international competitions (he’s preparing for the Oberlin International Piano Competition this summer).
“I’m looking for ways to combine my academic interests with my musical interests,” he says, although he’s aware of the challenges of a career in music, if that’s the direction he goes.
Ari and his parents, Esti Karson and Eli Livne, belong to Congregation Herzl-Ner Tamid. Ari was intially involved in USY, but had to give it up for lack of time. His dad is from Israel and Ari has traveled there a lot. His Hebrew is pretty good, but he said he hopes to take some Hebrew classes at Yale.
As we go to press, Ari is on his way back from Washington, D.C., where the Presidential Scholars gathered to perform at the Kennedy Center, to receive their honors, and to visit with their representatives, as well as to do a community service project. Each scholar had the opportunity to honor a significant teacher and Ari picked his piano teacher, Zitta Zohar.
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Seattle native Beth Kochin was one of 16 recipients of this year’s Hertz Foundation awards in applied science and engineering. The doctoral candidate at Emory University in Atlanta was one of four women and nine men selected from a pool of 600 applicants.
The foundation will provide Kochin, who is studying the role of innate immunity in acute malarial infections, with resources for her continuing education.
“It’s quite nice because it will give me funding for five years of graduate school,” she told me by phone from Atlanta. “Hopefully that will take me through [my] Ph.D.”
Beth is a graduate of Lakeside School and attended the Seattle Hebrew Academy for elementary school. She is working quite intensely and doesn’t have vacation plans for the summer, aside from attending conferences, which she says can be fun.
“I get to meet other people in my field,” she says. “It’s a good way to learn.”
Her research interest came from a desire to do “something really applicable…that would have a good impact,” as well as “to do something that combined math and biology,” she says. “Understanding more about the disease can have application for treatment.”
Beth is the daughter of Rochelle and Levis Kochin, members of Congregation Bikur Cholim-Machzikay Hadath.
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Matthew Schneeweiss, the son of Dr. Dan and Terry Schneeweiss of Seattle, was the valedictorian of Touro College’s Lander College for Arts & Sciences (men’s division). He spoke at commencement at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City on May 25, one of four students who addressed the graduating class and their families.
A psychology major and a graduate of Northwest Yeshiva High School, Matt completed his BA at Touro’s Lander College of Arts and Sciences in Flatbush while he concurrently pursued Talmudic Studies at Yeshiva Bnei Torah in Far Rockaway (Queens). He’ll continue his Talmudic studies this summer and next year.
Matt plans a career in Jewish secondary education, and will begin a master’s degree program at Yeshiva University’s Azrielli Graduate School of Education in September.
The Schneeweisses belong to Congregation Shevet Achim on Mercer Island. Matt described to me how his family became progressively more interested in an observant lifestyle over the past 10 years. He, his brother and mom formally converted to Judaism when he was in 11th grade.