May 20, 2014  –  Westwood High School senior Ray Lu needed to go above and beyond perfect scores on both the two-part SAT and the ACT in order to be named a Presidential Scholar by the U.S. Department of Education, a distinction he, along with 141 students nationwide, earned earlier this month.

The perfect scores made him a candidate, but he needed to complete a series of essays in competition with other top students around the country before being named to the esteemed list, Lu said.

“For my family and my parents, they are proud of me for getting to this point,” Lu said. “Growing up, academics were really important for my family. I think going to Washington to receive this award will be surreal.”

Lu started college entrance exam prep courses when he was in fourth grade, he said. His parents had him doing math exercises during the summer until he reached high school, and they always locked the computer down to make sure he stayed focused.

“Summers, weekends and even week days up until I started high school, I was taking extra classes, especially math,” Lu said. “I wasn’t able to waste any time. My parents would assign me worksheets and started me on SAT prep courses at a very early age.”

In addition to his outstanding test scores, Lu is also Westwood National Honor Society President, as well as a member in the National Financial Honors Society, Science Olympiad, Mu Alpha Theta and the Warrior football team. He will attend a ceremony at the White House on June 22, where he will receive a Presidential Scholar Medallion. He is one of six students from Texas to earn the distinction.

Lu will attend Dartmouth College in the fall to study economics, he said.

“Ray has been an exceptional student at Westwood, excelling in academics and demonstrating his leadership abilities through campus organizations,” Principal Laurelyn Arterbury said. “Ray is more than deserving of this award and we are honored that he was recognized as one of the top students in the nation. We have a strong tradition of excellence at Westwood and our students compete with their peers around the globe. Ray is a perfect example of what our students can achieve, especially with supportive parents and a caring faculty who set high academic standards.”

Lu attributed his parents, some of his best teachers and the International Baccalaureate program at Westwood to his success. The IB program helped to build critical thinking and problem solving skills that engaged him in high school, establishing a global way of thinking, he said.

“Anyone who knows Ray understands how deserving he is of this award,” said Craig Sullivan, an Advanced Placement calculus teacher at Westwood, whom Lu nominated as a U.S. Presidential Scholars Program Distinguished Teacher. “He has shown his outstanding academic excellence and leadership throughout high school. Ray demonstrates everything that Westwood High School strives to instill in our students.”

The White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, appointed by President Obama, selects honored scholars annually based on their academic success, artistic excellence, essays, school evaluations and transcripts, as well as evidence of community service, leadership, and demonstrated commitment to high ideals. Of the three million students expected to graduate from high school this year, more than 3,900 candidates qualified for the 2014 awards determined by outstanding performance on the College Board SAT and ACT exams, and through nominations made by Chief State School Officers or the National YoungArts Foundation’s nationwide YoungArts™ competition.

The 2014 U.S. Presidential Scholars are comprised of one young man and one young woman from each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and from U.S. families living abroad, as well as 15 chosen at-large and 20 U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts.

Created in 1964, the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program has honored more than 6,500 of the nation’s top-performing students with the prestigious award given to honorees during the annual ceremony in D.C. The program was expanded in 1979 to recognize students who demonstrate exceptional talent in the visual, literary and performing arts.