Way to Go! Jan Gong, Garden City High

Jan Gong, a senior at Garden City High School, was one of 141 high school seniors named a 2011 U.S. Presidential Scholar earlier this month by the U.S. Department of Education. She was the sole Long Island student to receive the distinction.

To get selected Gong achieved a perfect score on her SATs and then was evaluated on such factors as academic excellence, leadership, citizenship and community service.

"I don't think anyone can predict getting an honor like this," said Gong, 18, who will be acknowledged next month in Washington, DC. "It's a great feeling to be recognized for all of the hard work that I've done."

Gong won $7,500 as a national finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search earlier this year for a research project that explored the existence of sugar addiction. She also won $15,000 last year as a finalist in the College Board's Young Epidemiology Scholars Competition for studying genetic links to heart attacks in Chinese populations.

At Garden City, Gong is captain of the school's fencing and math teams, president of the Latin National Honor Society, and a board member of the Tri-M Music Honor Society.