Samantha Garvey, Homeless New York Teen, Not Among Finalists In Intel Science Contest

BRENTWOOD, N.Y. — A New York high school student who attracted national attention after it was reported that she was living in a homeless shelter is not among the 40 finalists in the prestigious Intel Science contest.

Brentwood High School senior Samantha Garvey was named a semifinalist last month. The finalists were announced Wednesday.

After Garvey's situation came to light, Suffolk County officials announced they were arranging for her family to move into a house. She also appeared on the "Ellen" show, where she received a $50,000 college scholarship.

On Tuesday, she was an invited guest at President Barack Obama's State of the Union address.

In an appearance Wednesday on the "Today" show, Garvey said the presence of so many "historic figures" made her want to combine her studies in science with policy.

Comments

[afp in Tx]

06:51 PM on 01/28/2012

A wonderful young woman. I wish her all the best in the years to come. I am sure we will hear more about her scientific successes.

[Fenrir Lokison]

02:10 AM on 01/27/2012

It goes to show you. We put too much stock in money and material things. But here is someone who did not let her condition from stopping her to be what she wants to be. Its all about how one wishes to view life and the experiences of their life that makes the true difference in stories like these.

I pray continued drive, endurance, courage and strength, not just for this young lady, but all people that walk on this Earth.

[SwiftJonathan]

05:47 PM on 01/27/2012

She doesn't have a condition... she may have parents who messed up and she lives in a country which doesn't give a hoot about its citizens. Both are fixable.

[MichaelAKD]

05:15 PM on 01/26/2012

what a tremendous young adult and how proud her family must be. you see someone like her and how with all the adversity she faced she still managed to thrive and excel, no wonder teachers choose careers that pay so little yet yield so very much.

[TeeLolly]

12:42 AM on 01/27/2012

And then you look at George W. Bush and Mitt Romney, and wonder what this young woman could have accomplished if she had been born with all the advantages they squandered ...

[phal4875]

02:37 PM on 01/26/2012

It is good to see that she did not walk away with nothing.

[ennui the third]

06:10 AM on 01/26/2012

Yet another hook, a homeless teen makes good...next will be a reality show, a book, a movie, and then she will even direct!

[SwiftJonathan]

12:54 AM on 01/26/2012

Now, let's hear it from all of you: who here is willing to pay higher taxes to support the Samanthas and the Jills and the Nicks and the Johns who are not on the news?

Anybody? Didn't think so.

[Beercandyman]

02:47 AM on 01/26/2012

I will. The more smart people there are the better off we will all be. I believe everyone should get the chance to go to school all the way through collage. Remember 100 years ago people did not get passed the 6th grade (except the rich kids). Now it's 12th grade and the world is a better place for it. It's time for everyone to go to the 16th grade. The amount of money it takes to educate a more productive citizen is peanuts compared to what the government can tax the citizens higher income. It is an investment that will pay for itself and maybe even make money. The GDP will be higher and we will have earned the exceptionalism the Republicans want as a birthright.

[SwiftJonathan]

07:05 AM on 01/26/2012

So that makes two of us. Now all we need is a political majority... and therein lies the problem in a country that has decided to point all of its weapons at its feet and to fire at will.

[Gmasters]

02:18 PM on 01/29/2012

It is an investment that will pay for itself and maybe even make money.

The WW2 GI Bill netted Uncle Sam a 1000% return on investment because of the increase in income and taxes paid by the GIs who went to college. Education is the ONLY government program ever Proven to return a Profit.

[phal4875]

02:38 PM on 01/26/2012

I'll bet the wealthy Romney did not raise his uncallused hand.

[SwiftJonathan]

06:30 PM on 01/26/2012

No replies, yet, from any of the Republican candidates...

[SwiftJonathan]

06:31 PM on 01/25/2012

Estimated cost of Iraq war... $800 billion. Cost to produce a PhD at some of the best universities in the US? Probably around $250k. Make that half a million... just for the sake of argument.

So the Iraq war would have paid for 1.6 million PhDs.

Please note that in 2009 we were producing a mere 20,000 PhDs in the life sciences and the physical sciences combined, far less than we actually need to just keep the lights on in this country.

Make war, not science? Sounds about right.

[phal4875]

02:40 PM on 01/26/2012

We account for about 43% of the world's military budget. As the world's cop, we have much less left over than the less warlike nations. A Ph.D. is hardly as exciting as shooting a bad guy in Iraq, the nation we attacked just for the heck of it.

[SwiftJonathan]

06:31 PM on 01/26/2012

Not as exciting... but a much better investment than a dead guy on the other side of the world, though.

[Larry Motuz]

07:55 PM on 01/26/2012

Quote: "Another critical advantage for Apple was that China provided engineers at a scale the United States could not match. Apple’s executives had estimated that about 8,700 industrial engineers were needed to oversee and guide the 200,000 assembly-line workers eventually involved in manufacturing iPhones. The company’s analysts had forecast it would take as long as nine months to find that many qualified engineers in the United States.”

Source: NYT at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?pagewanted=all

Though this article shows some bias :: it's definitely Apple-friendly :: part of the jobs gap is certainly due to what is an American deficit in providing affordable educational opportunities.

[SwiftJonathan]

05:51 PM on 01/27/2012

Yep... I actually doubt that you could even assemble such an operation in the US... and be on time and within reasonable budgets. And if Apple ever tried to do it, their stockholders would probably slam the stock into the ground.

[SwiftJonathan]

06:17 PM on 01/25/2012

Now about that free higher education... Denmark, Norway and Sweden can do it.

How comes we can't?

Oh, that's right... we could. We just don't want to. Who wants to tax their billionaires, after all?

[InLosAngeles]

07:39 PM on 01/25/2012

"Who wants to tax their billionair­es, after all?"

The top 1% pay 37% of all income taxes. The top 5% pay almost 60% of all income taxes.

Considering over 50% of people don't pay any income taxes, how much of the burden should the top 1% pay?

[RagdeSitum]

08:09 PM on 01/25/2012

Do you realize that the reason there is such a larger percentage of the population that does not pay income taxes is because of policies that benefit the top 1%? In simpler terms, have you considered what % of the population didn't pay historically and how it got to be that way?

[SwiftJonathan]

12:49 AM on 01/26/2012

Income taxes... right... of course, if you only pay 13-15% of your income in income taxes... what stops you from paying more? Greed?

I think that's it.

[wolfpeace]

10:07 AM on 01/26/2012

The City University of New York was free until the late 1960's or early '70's. Cooper Union, funded by Andrew Carnegie, may still be free. CCNY's most famous product: Jonas Salk who created the first polio vaccine. Are you alive because of him?

The U S is rapidly becoming a third world country. Unless we start free public college education for our citizens, especially in the sciences we will fall further behind. Unfortunately, there are too many people, especially Republicans, who don't believe higher education, especially science is necessary for the general population. Result: unskilled factory, retail and restaurant jobs.

[SwiftJonathan]

05:55 PM on 01/27/2012

From the Cooper Union website:

"The Cooper Union annual tuition charge for 2011–2012 is $37,500.Each registered student receives a full-tuition scholarship."

Students also have to pay an application fee of $65 and a student fee of $750...

This is, indeed, very commensurate to current fee structures at e.g. German universities.

And this is, indeed, as it should be!

[SwiftJonathan]

03:09 PM on 01/25/2012

None, of this, of course. would be any news if the richest nation on Earth would provide for its citizens what many much smaller countries do quite easily: a social net that catches everyone BEFORE they hit rock bottom and free higher education.

That, of course, is an evil socialist idea and has to be fought tooth and nail.

[J0E1]

06:01 PM on 01/25/2012

Quick: List off 5 countries that don't have homeless people.

[SwiftJonathan]

06:11 PM on 01/25/2012

I can list one country that shouldn't have homeless people but has lots of them:

The US.

What a shame. The promise of freedom... to be free of help when you need it the most.

[CASnyder]

04:13 AM on 01/26/2012

I never saw them when I was studying in Denmark - there was a tiny minimum stipend, food, shelter, & medical care that went to everyone that couldn't work & earn for themselves. Very high taxes, but with free college education & health care, I didn't hear anyone complaining, and they had a very good standard of living. Similarly for other scandinavian countries and for the communist countries like Russia (still USSR when I visited). You'd think there would be a lot of deadbeats living off the dole, but folks seemed to work hard to excel & to earn a better income.

[onionboy]

02:23 PM on 01/25/2012

I'll take all that over winning the contest any day.

[KIVPossum]

01:50 PM on 01/25/2012

At least she got a scholarship, and if I recall correctly a couple of 4 figure gift cards.

[Djay0252]

01:02 PM on 01/25/2012

She got what she needed and all she had to do was live in a shelter for two weeks.

[Maezeppa]

01:55 PM on 01/25/2012

Shame on you.  Shame, shame, shame.

[Djay0252]

02:15 PM on 01/25/2012

I am well rebuked....I think....I should have said she got what she NEEDED....a scholarship to college is something most kids will never get and I am sure she will take the scholarship over the science award

[phal4875]

02:45 PM on 01/26/2012

She got what she needed by being very smart and hard-working. Even a Republican would admit that the average person living in a shelter does not receive a college scholarship.

[Djay0252]

03:26 PM on 01/26/2012

Exactly what I have been saying in other posts. The story insinuates she got the scholarship because she lives in a shelter

[peoplepersons]

12:58 PM on 01/25/2012

She got a better prize than the first place winner because she was homeless for a week? Is that what these contests are anymore? Congratulations to the girls who won fair and square. And to the homeless girl, I hope you use your step up to help those less fortunate as you once were.

[KIVPossum]

01:51 PM on 01/25/2012

What? Really?

That is NOT RIGHT.

[Maezeppa]

01:56 PM on 01/25/2012

Your post is sickening.

[SwiftJonathan]

03:11 PM on 01/25/2012

The truth is sickening... but only if you can't handle it.

[realitybaby]

12:13 PM on 01/25/2012

BRAVO little girl - amazing that you have not let any of your home problems interfere with your education! ROCK ON KID.

[GrannyH]

12:13 PM on 01/25/2012

Read her history, folks, Samantha's been in a shelter for only a week or two. For her entire high school career, she was living at home.

It's a PR scam.

[BettyRK]

02:29 PM on 01/25/2012

Have you ever lived in a shelter? Most people can't stand it for a day or two, let alone weeks. Furthermore, while doing her scientific research she got to go through seeing her father lose his job and the family being thrown out of their home. You are not a very kind soul, granny. I hope you have more charity in your heart for your own grandchildren.

[GrannyH]

02:56 PM on 01/25/2012

The point Betty is that Samanth'as homelessness did not impact the Intel project for which she is getting all this attention. The reason: She wasn't homeless during the entire span of her work on her Intel project.

[PengieP]

03:14 PM on 01/25/2012

May you have the misfortune to have the same problem, since you think it is so insignificant. You'd be a good person to experience it since you think it's nothing.

[GrannyH]

06:01 PM on 01/25/2012

Homelessness is not insignificant. That is why it is hardworking homeless kids who should be accorded the attention - not someone who is being credited with having earned a place as an Intel semi-finalist while being homeles. Because she was never homeless while doing her work on the project.

The Intel project was completed months ago when she was not homeless. She has been homeless for just two weeks.and it would have only been one week except Samantha and her family are waiting for their county-suppled home to be renovated.

Again, Homelessness is not insignificant, far from it.