Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 6 · column 3 of 4 · from the scan, no model involved
By Miranda Hope
Special to the Rappahannock News
Last December, Jesse Palmer, of the Rappahannock High Schools Class of 2007, was admitted Early Acceptance to Stanford University. He is the first student from Rappahannock County High School to be admitted to Stanford. He may be the first to have ever applied. Stanford, located an, hour south of San Francisco, California, has a large, 10,000-acre campus(called “The Farm”), surrounded by rolling hills and the towns of Palo Alto and Menlo Park. The student population is relatively small — 6,600 undergraduates and 8,400 graduate students — most all of them traveling to class and activities on bicycles. It is a sun-drenched place, palm and eucalyptus trees shading red-roofed sandstone buildings, a crisp, clean air blowing off the Pacific and down through the valleys.
For four days, March 1-4, Jesse, his mother Jan Besecker, and Miranda Hope, Director of the Next Step program at RCHS, visited the university and its surroundings. The Stanford admissions officers were thrilled to meet Jesse in person and quoted parts of his application essays back to him.
Jesse toured the campus and sat in on a class called “The Physics of Flame,” during which he learned the always useful skill of fire breathing. He watched an Ultimate Frisbee practice — learned some new throws — and a freshman talent show, the winner of which solved a Rubik’s Cube in under four minutes — blindfolded!
Jesse spent one night in a dorm and another in a fraternity house. Over the weekend, Jesse watched a track meet, traveled through a redwood forest to the ocean, sailed on a catamaran at sunset under the Golden Gate Bridge, rode the side of a trolley car, and walked the steep hills of San Francisco — from Pier 39 up Telegraph Hill, down through Chinatown to Union Square. It was a busy long-weekend and a great introduction to that school and that part of the world.
Stanford is one of the toughest schools to get into in the nation. This year, it received over 23,000 applications and will admit 2,400
94.1%