Christine Yoo and Kimberly Te said they were thrilled to meet President Barrack Obama during their visit to the White House last week with other winners of science projects from around the country.
Yoo and Te said they were also excited to meet the many celebrities who attended the event, including Science Guy Bill Nye, astronaut Mark Kelly, artist Janelle Monae and former Victoria Secret model Karlie Kloss.
But the best part of the day, they said, was the chance to meet other students with similar interests.
“The fact that there [was everyone] from Harvard sophomores to five year old kids at the event was made it special,” Yoo said.
Those in attendance, she said, ranged from an international biogenius scholar to the winner of a Google science fair.
“There was this girl that I’ve seen on the internet. She won the 3M Discovery challenge and admired her project and I saw her there,” Yoo said.
Yoo and Te, both seniors at Manhasset High School, were invited to the annual White House Science Fair in Washington, DC., after winning the National Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology in December.
The two said the trip was a combination of business and pleasure.
“We got to Washington on Tuesday and we spent the day setting up our presentation,” Te said. “Everyone was so nice. It was like they were being too helpful.”
She said after they both set up their presentation they took an exclusive tour of the White House with other students from around the country.
“We went to the map room, the library and the diplomat room where the president hosts all these world leaders,” Te said.
She said their tour guide told them to enjoy the tour because most of the areas they got access to were off limits to tourists.
“They told us they don’t allow all this access,” Te said.
And then there was meeting the president.
“It was a cool and extremely fun meeting” the President, Yoo said.
Yoo and Te presented their project at the White House Fair, which won the grand prize of a $100,000 college scholarship last December.
The project explores new methods to harness energy and clean up oil spills.
The device has a “cost-effective design” and is a “profitable and noninvasive method for cleaning up oil spill pollution,” Te said in an interview with the Manhasset Times in November.
The pair competed over the weekend against other finalists in front of a panel of college professors at Geoge Washington University.
Yoo and Te have been friends since the first grade, sharing a passion for science.
“Both of them are wonderful students and we couldn’t have chosen a better pair to send to Washington,” said Thomas Elkins, Manhasset District Coordinator for Science, Health, & Technology.
