They're barely 18 years old, but these high school students are doing more than most adults could ever hope to do in their lifetimes.
Their resumes will make your jaw drop: There's a scientist who built a nuclear reactor in his father's garage, a swimmer who won four Olympic gold medals, and a self-taught coder who runs his own app development company.
And more importantly, they prove that age really has no bearing on what people are able to accomplish.
Listed in alphabetical order, we found the 25 most impressive students graduating from high school this year.
Max Rosenberg contributed to this story.
Sabrina Brady created a drawing that was seen by millions of people on Google's home page.
High school: Sparta Senior High School, Sparta, Wisc.
What makes her impressive: Last month the Google home page depicted a touching doodle where a young girl embraces a man wearing a military uniform. The doodle was the heartfelt work of Sabrina Brady, recapturing the moment her father returned home from an 18-month deployment in Iraq when she was 10 years old. Brady won the prestigious Doodle 4 Google contest, as well as glory on the Google homepage, a $30,000 college scholarship, a Google Chromebook, and a $50,000 technology grant for her school.
Brady's drawing, titled "Coming Home," was chosen in a user vote among over 130,000 entries from students in grades K through 12, who were instructed to draw the "best day ever,"according to Google Technologist Daniel Sieberg in an interview on The TODAY Show.
Plans for next year: Brady will continue studying art at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) this fall.
Donald Chao started a non-profit that teaches people about the ecosystem.
High school: Newport High School, Bellevue, Wash.
What makes him impressive: Chao founded a non-profit organization in 2011 called the Ocean Acidification Education Project, which teaches people and organizations about their impact on marine ecosystems in the Puget Sound. The goal is that these people can then influence Washington state legislation to implement better, stricter methods of carbon dioxide emission reduction.
Chao also kick-started a program called Teach My Grandma, which "offers personalized, one-on-one, bilingual instruction at locations convenient for the client, whether that be at his or her retirement community or at a local Starbucks," he tells us. "We specialize in social media (i.e., Facebook and Skype), but can teach everything from computers/internet for beginners to Quickbooks."
He says he's also developing several other entrepreneurial projects, including a titanium dioxide-infused exterior paint used to neutralize greenhouse gases released by automobiles.
Chao speaks English, Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic, and Taiwanese Hokkien. He also taught himself how to pick locks, which is a hobby he enjoys doing as a puzzle, and also to help his friends. To be clear, Chao tells us, he only picks locks with permission from others.
Plans for next year: Chao plans to continue working on OAEP and Teach My Grandma as a freshman at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business in the fall.
Conrad Farnsworth is the first person in Wyoming to build a nuclear fusion reactor.
High school: Newcastle High School, Newcastle, Wyo.
What makes him impressive:Conrad Farnsworth has managed to do something that all of 60 people, at most, have done: achieve nuclear fusion.
Farnsworth built a nuclear reactor in his father’s garage in order to enter a science fair. However, he was disqualified for supposedly competing in too many science fairs, and in the wrong order, according to the Star-Tribune.
“It’s frustrating having four years to get to a single point go down the drain... And it’s silly. It’s a science fair. Seriously, aren’t they supposed to be promoting science and not bureaucracy?” Farnsworth told the Star Tribune.
Regardless, Farnsworth can feel good knowing that he is the first person in Wyoming to build a nuclear fusion reactor.
Plans for next year: Farnsworth plans to attend the South Dakota School of Mines in the fall.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider