We first heard about Nolan Kamitaki fromhis mother. Moms are like that. She is rightly proud of her son who is headed to Harvard next week graduating with honors, a presidential scholar - and that's just for starters. He was among a group of students recognized for their endeavors in Washington.
"About 120 were in the academics, so they looked at a variety of things, not just straightforward academics but they looked at community service, if you volunteered at a hospital, that kind of thing," said Nolan.
Nolan has placed in the top at the state science fair for the past five years and this year won top prize at the International Science and Engineering fair in Washington.
"I ended up getting the best in category award for molecular and cellular biology. So I didn't expect it at all. Because they start, kind of the fourth place awards, the honorable mention and they just go up through third, second and first so - by the end of the night I figured, okay I'm going home. I had a great four years and then when they get up to the first place awards, they call my name and it was a complete surprise for me," said Nolan.
Nolan strikes us as a normal kid - he even noodled around with our iPad piano keyboard while he was waiting for his interview. But his real love is science - he wants to make a contribution.
"I hope it's something that will be beneficial to people. And I guess beneficial to people in the immediate effect," said Nolan. "And that's in terms of fields of science, I guess biology is probably the most fascinating to me because I guess it's kind of most in touch from a humanitarian standpoint."
He could take credit for his perfect SAT scores and his other honors, but he thanks others.
"Besides parents, of course, teachers and everyone else. But my mom and my dad have been great. They've always helped me get through," said Nolan. "If I had a tough assignment, if I needed help on something, they were always there for me."
