Prize Recipient

Soun-Ja Walters

Background:

Greetings! My name is Soun-Ja Walters and I am 18 years old. It has always been my highest aspiration to become a physicist. I am extremely excited to begin college at New Mexico State University because I finally have a chance to make my life long dream a reality. I attended Pale Verde High School in Tucson, Arizona. I graduated with a 4.04 GPA. My hard work earned me the class rank of 6 out of 296 people. During high school, I was very active in the marching band.

As a senior, I held the position of Drum Major. Through this experience, I learned a great deal about leadership-a skill I will need through out life. I was also President of Palo Verde?s Academic Decathlon Team and the National Honor Society. These activities taught me the importance of an active, creative mind. Now that I have graduated, I will use these experiences in college to achieve my goal of becoming a physicist. Ultimately, I want to become a cosmologist so that I can study the past, present and ultimate future of the universe. The scholarship that I have received from the American Physical Society will help me do just that.