Athens Drive High School is home to approximately 400 seniors who will be graduating June 7 and moving on to the beginning of the rest of their lives. Jonathan Otten is one of these many, but he stands alone for being salutatorian and the recipient of the National Merit Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals Scholarship.
Students became eligible for the National Merit Scholarship by receiving qualifying scores on the 2012 Preliminary SAT. From there, semifinalists, approximately 16,000, were required to complete an application. They had to write an essay and report their extracurricular activities, awards and leadership positions.
Otten was Athens’ only National Merit Finalist and one of six students in Wake County to receive the award this year. His scholarship is sponsored by Mallinckrodt, a pharmaceutical company, and Otten will receive an annual stipend that is renewable for four years of college undergraduate study.
This scholarship will be used when Otten attends N.C. State University in the upcoming fall. He was accepted into the University Honors Program and intends to major in Chemical Engineering. Otten’s other top options were Vanderbilt, Delaware, Case Western, Carnegie Mellon, and Worcester Polytechnic.
“All of the other schools were very tempting, but I ended up choosing State because they seemed to put the most resources into engineering. Centennial Campus is great, and their graduate outcomes tend to be very good,” said Otten.
Outside of the classroom, Otten is also involved in the Theatre Department at Athens. He became the head technician in the fall of his freshman year, and the upcoming show Footloose will be his fourth as technical director. Otten has also been involved with the production of Gradman throughout the years.
“I enjoy technical theater because it lets me apply my technical skills to other arts areas. It’s extremely rewarding to watch a show come together, and the theater department has a great group of people,” said Otten.
In his community, Otten helps out with Triangle Radio Reading Service, a charity organization that helps the blind and print-impaired community of Wake County and North Carolina. He helps them launch pilot projects, graphic designs, digital services, and planning for galas and events.
“I am excited about moving on to another chapter. I’m ready for a change – the greater independence and opportunities. I’m really looking forward to it,” said Otten.
After he graduates from N.C. State, Otten plans on continuing his education and getting his Ph.D. He wants to eventually become a researcher, either in an educational or corporate setting.
