Eighteen-year-old Eddy Meals, who graduated from ASTI on June 5, is heading to UC San Diego in September to study bioinformatics. Asked to define “bioinformatics,” he modestly explains: “I like to say it’s a blend of computer science and biology. It’s using computational approaches to collect and biological data.”

 

Eddy came to ASTI after attending Bay Farm School in grades K-8. Once in high school, he threw himself not only into academics but also leadership opportunities and extracurricular activities, including joining the robotics team (and helping to organize two competitions hosted by UC Berkeley), setting up the first Island Hacks hackathons, 3-D printing trophies for ASTI’s talent show, organizing prom, and participating in the Initiative Club, which provides tutoring to AUSD elementary students.

 

Eddy says that he had to learn time management skills to balance his extracurriculars with his academics, and in college he hopes to continue being involved. “I’ll feel very empty if I don’t,” he says.

 

ASTI faculty praise Eddy’s “unwavering kindness,” generosity, initiative, and perseverance. “I try to pay it forward,” Eddy says, when told of these compliments, “because I know I have received a lot of kindness in my life, too.”