Bethany Roy, a senior at Cape Elizabeth High School, has been named a Presidential Scholar, and now has to choose between a family trip to Greece and a visit to the White House.

She joins 140 other Presidential Scholars from around the country. At least one male and one female student from each state are chosen for the honor. The second student from Maine is from Brunswick.

“It’s definitely really, really an honor,” Roy said. Unfortunately, Roy is not sure she will be able to attend the four days of activities in June, including panel discussions and a ceremony at the White House because her family has planned a vacation to Greece. “I’d love to go … but, I’d also like to be in Greece,” Roy said.

When Roy first received something in the mail from the U.S. Department of Education welcoming her to apply for recognition based on her outstanding SAT scores she didn’t think much of it. It was just another piece of mail – maybe a con, she said.

But people told her how prestigious the Presidential Scholar program is and Roy decided to apply, waiting until the last possible moment to send in her application. She stayed home from school for a day to write the several essays required and get in the mail in time.

Roy said the application for the Presidential Scholar program easily rivaled the application she completed for Yale University, where she will attend next year.

Based on those applications 2,600 students nationwide and 46 from Maine were chosen as candidates. Two students from Cape, Roy and Boris Vabson, were among those from the state who were nominated.

As part of Roy’s application she was told to nominate one exceptional teacher to receive the program’s Teacher Recognition Award. Roy chose Hannah Jones, an English teacher at the High School, who will also be honored in Washington, D.C. Jones taught Roy her freshman and junior years. Roy said Jones is awesome and so passionate about her subject.

“I don’t really like English that much … but, it became my favorite class,” Roy said.

Jones said Roy is an “intellectual powerhouse” with an immediate and passionate sense of responsibility.

“This is my watershed moment of getting to know Beth,” Jones said.

In September 2001, two weeks into Roy’s freshman year, Jones first experienced what kind of person Roy was. After the World Trade Center towers were destroyed, while all the students were piled into the lecture hall watching the TV and the news that morning, Roy and her older brother were outside on their cell phones organizing a blood drive.

Roy is active in the school and with many extracurricular activities. She is founder and president of the Operation Smile Club at the high school, which raises money for the national, non-profit organization Operation Smile. This organization sends teams of physicians and other health care professionals to lesser-developed countries to do free reconstructive surgeries on disadvantaged children who have facial deformities such as cleft lips, cleft palates, tumors, facial clefts and burns.

At CEHS, OpSmile does a lot of fund-raisers and awareness-raisers. Roy has helped organize an annual rose sale for Valentine’s Day and other things such as toothbrush drives, leaf raking and benefit concerts. Roy was selected by Operation Smile to go to Belem, Brazil, on a medical mission in August 2004.

Roy is also president of the Volunteer Club, treasurer of her class, and philanthropy chair of the National Honor Society. She is co-captain of the debate team and a member of the math and tennis teams. Roy rounds out her busy schedule by being a member of student rescue, where she acts as an assistant to EMTs on ambulance calls.

Jones said Roy could run for president of the United States, but shouldn’t because Roy would be too good for the job. “But, if she did I’d vote for her.”

Teacher Hannah Jones and Presidential Scholar Beth Roy of Cape Elizabeth

Copy the Story Link