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Overcast W.T. Clarke High School's top student heads to Cornell University. Meet Matthew Vo, the class of 2023's valedictorian.
W.T. Clarke High School Valedictorian Matthew Vo has always been interested in life sciences and biology. That’s why it’s no surprise that he will pursue bioengineering at Cornell University in upstate Ithaca this fall.
“It’s been a longtime interest of mine, just life sciences in general,” Vo, 17, said. “I remember when I was younger I always used to really love anything bio related.”
A longtime backyard gardener, Vo grows a lot of flowers and vegetables, and even though his parents tell him not to, he tries to grow apple and peach trees, too.
Philip Vo, Matthew’s father, said that his son has always tried to grow everything, ever since he was little.
“He just loves nature in general,” Philip said. “Every time he sees a plant, he tries to do research on that particular plant, and it’s just become his main interest.”
Philip said that they grow a flowering plant from Vietnam in their yard that blooms every spring. They had the plant inside when they were living in Queens when Matthew was young, and it survived the move to Long Island.
Matthew said his love for plants grew as he spent his early life in an apartment in Queens, surrounded by buildings and concrete.
“I think I was drawn to plants just because it felt so different,” he said. “But I think that something just feels so right about (growing plants), like it’s the way things should be. (We) as a society (have) kind of lost that connection to nature a lot, and I feel like my love of plants just helps me maintain that connection.”
Bio engineering is a vast field, and Vo isn’t sure exactly what path he wants to travel, but he’s thinking it will have something to do with plants and agriculture.
“I personally feel like there’s not enough focus in those areas compared to human health care or human genetics and medicine,” he said. “Even though those are important, I still feel like agriculture is vital especially in a world where there’s climate change going on and different pressures on crops and the agricultural systems.”
In school, Vo is affectionately known as “the plant guy,” according to Shreejita Satpathy, the Class of 2023 salutatorian.
“I remember in elementary school, maybe fourth or fifth grade, (Matthew) identified poison ivy on the playground,” Sat-pathy said. “That was so cool, because he was in elementary school and he was just a little kid, and none of the adults knew what it was or anything.
“Everyone knows he’s really good with plants.”
Vo made his way through the East Meadow School District starting out at Meadowbrook Elementary School before heading to Clarke Middle School and finishing out his high school career in the same building with a 109.84 weighted average.
He is the secretary of the National Honor Society as well as the science and Spanish honor societies. He is a member of the social studies, English and art honor societies as well. He participates in the school’s DECA chapter, competes with the Quiz Bowl club, is the president and editor of the school’s literary magazine, Reflections, and does the stage lighting for the theater department and for concerts.
Vo is a varsity tennis player, a National Merit finalist, and co-founder of the Research Mentorship Organization, which aids middle school students in learning how to do research.
“It kind of stems a lot from, like, my experiences as a middle schooler in research,” Vo said. “Looking back, I felt that even though we did get a good foundation and were taught a lot, there were some things that we felt could be possibly explained differently or in more detail.”
In college, Vo said, he is looking forward to the freedom of exploring what he wants to do and how he can pursue those opportunities.
“I’m definitely looking forward to actually working in research, possibly with some professors in areas that interests me,” he said. “But, also just connecting with other people who may perhaps share some of my experiences or some of my interests.”
