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Four teenagers from Poway Unified School District are among “San Diego’s 25 Most Remarkable Teens” for 2021.
The local honorees are Stephan Abrams, a 19-year-old freshman at George Mason University who graduated from Del Norte High last June; Rohan Bosworth, a 16-year-old junior at Poway High; Kara Fan, a 16-year-old junior at Westview High; and Flora Yuan, a 17-year-old senior at Del Norte High.
The award recipients were recognized during a Nov. 10 ceremony at the San Diego Public Library’s downtown Central Library. The 25 teens were selected by the San Diego County Public Defender Youth Council, which was formed in 2017. The council consists of students from high schools throughout the county plus their public defender attorney advisers. The council focuses on projects that promote civic engagement, officials said.
The “Most Remarkable Teen” program recognizes San Diego youths ages 13-19 for their contributions and efforts in 25 categories. These include environmental advocacy, arts and culture, technology, civic involvement, leadership, courage to overcome adversity and other accomplishments, officials said. Each teen was interviewed via Zoom and was presented a certificate of recognition at the ceremony.
“Celebrating the contributions of young people is particularly meaningful this year as we are transitioning from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Public Defender Randy Mize. “We received 159 nominations from all over San Diego County documenting inspiring stories of youth demonstrating courage, spirit and unparalleled tenacity during these past 18 months.”
Abrams was selected to receive the Public Defender’s Award of Excellence. The 4S Ranch resident is the son of Stuart and Alma Abrams.
Officials said Abrams was recognized for his efforts to promote gun violence prevention policies. He is an Executive Council member, the national chapter coordinator and a fellow for Team ENOUGH. It is a nationwide youth organization that lobbies for gun violence prevention policies and part of the Brady organization.
Locally, Abrams’ efforts have included helping to pass gun safety ordinances and laws in San Diego and California. These have included San Diego City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert’s recent efforts to pass a “ghost guns” ordinance in the city.
“Stephan has helped pass lifesaving polices at the local and state level,” said von Wilpert, who nominated Abrams. “He has organized dozens of students to participate in lobby days in Sacramento, and has been an activist since he was 15 years old. Stephan’s tenacity and professionalism for his age are what sets him apart.”
“It felt really good,” Abrams said about his award recognition. “It reflects all the great work that young people have done in San Diego. The future is now.”
Abrams said he does not do his activism in order to receive accolades and it makes him somewhat uncomfortable to be placed in the spotlight. “The purpose of my work is to help others. It was a very weird feeling to be recognized, but I got to be with my family (at the ceremony) … so it was very rewarding for me.”
It was the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that killed 17 students and staff members and injured another 17 that fueled his need to act, Abrams said.
“I felt I couldn’t be quiet anymore. … Young people can create change,” he said. “Mass shootings make the news, but there is gun violence every day in our backyards. We need to draw attention to it. In 2018 I was ready to jump in and not take ‘no’ for an answer.”
Going to college in Virginia brings him very close to the Team ENOUGH and Brady organization’s national office, which he said is nice.
“For me, it is so personal … (because) we are really a part of a nationwide fight in every state and the national level. We have made progress … nobody thinks gun violence is a good thing.”
The political science major at George Mason said he has “a passion for public policy.”
Bosworth was selected for his efforts in technology. The Scripps Ranch resident is the son of Abha and Tom Bosworth.
Officials said Bosworth was selected due to his passion for using technology to benefit society. As a Poway High freshman, he founded and served as captain and lead programmer of Mechanical Advantage, a FIRST Tech Challenge robotics team. Under his leadership, the team was a finalist at the Global Innovation Awards for its application that turns exercise into a game for children with autism.
He has also led computer-aided design activities at several schools in San Diego County and taught hundreds of students in low-income communities via Zoom during the pandemic. Bosworth has also worked with underprivileged students in Bangladesh and Paraguay to help them develop robotics teams while living in developing nations, according to his nomination.
When the pandemic began, Bosworth partnered with the Scripps Ranch Civic Association to produce 10,000 face shields for front-line workers. He also designed a custom ear saver that was distributed through a network of 3D-printer users in addition to the face shields, officials said.
Other work has included working with researchers at Massachusetts General to create an online calculator that uses their data to predict the risk of ventilation and death in COVID-19 patients in order to improve treatment predictions at the onset of hospitalization. He is also working with a professor at UC San Diego to make self-driving cars more viable and roads safer.
“Rohan is set apart by his passion for the positive use of technology and his willingness and deep desire to impact the community,” said nominator Kelly Woldseth, a computer science and mathematics teacher at Poway High.
“It is such a great honor to be able to be recognized by the public defenders,” Bosworth said. “I am grateful to Ms. (Connie) Howard (with the San Diego County Public Defender’s Office), my coaches and teachers … it is positively an amazing honor.”
Bosworth said his interest in robotics began in middle school when he joined the FIRST Lego League robotics team.
“A passion was sparked. I absolutely loved doing robotics. … By random chance I was introduced to robotics and it changed the course of my life,” he said. “I want students to have exposure at a young age because it can be life changing.”
In addition to his efforts with robotics at Poway High — including two years on its Team Spyder — Bosworth is president of the math and computer science clubs on campus and a member of its Asian Student Union.
Bosworth said he would like to have a career in robotics or engineering because he believes in helping people through better technology.
Fan was selected for her efforts as an inventor. The Rancho Peñasquitos resident is the daughter of Vivian Wang and David Fan.
Officials said Fan was selected because of her efforts in microbiology, an interest that formed in middle school. She has won first place in the microbiology category of the San Diego Science Fair every year since eighth grade.
Her passion was fueled when she read about antibiotic resistance and how by 2050 nearly 10 million people are predicted to die due to that resistance, according to her nomination. This hit home for her since antibiotics saved her grandmother’s life from a deadly infection years earlier.
Determined to find an answer to this problem, at age 14 Fan invented the Nano-Silver Liquid Bandage. It uses nano-silver to kill bacteria and does not use antibiotics. For her invention, she won the 3M Young Scientist Challenge and received the title “America’s Top Young Scientist.”
During the young scientist competition she worked with another student to create a virtual escape room game to teach people about antibiotic resistance. Her more recent efforts have included doing research at UC Irvine to make surfaces that can kill bacteria based on the anti-fouling and anti-bacterial properties of dragonflies.
“It meant a lot to me,” Fan said about her Most Remarkable Teen selection that she said recognizes her years of work.
Fan said her research efforts are not part of her regular school work. She said the idea behind creating a game was to make her educational outreach efforts “more entertaining” for her target audience. “I am aiming for students all across the world,” she said.
When not doing her independent research, Fan said she plays golf, a sport she has pursued for the past five years. She plays on Westview’s team and said the sport helps her in many ways. It gets her outdoors and helps her deal with school issues and other stressors because she “faces a new challenge with every ball she hits.”
She also enjoys cooking because it is “relaxing,” though Fan said she does not have much time for the hobby.
As for her career goals, Fan said she is considering something in the medical field.
Yuan was selected in the category Music – Vocalist. The 4S Ranch resident is the daughter of Carrie Zhang and Lin Yuan.
Music has been a part of her life for many years. Yuan started singing at age 8, takes private lessons and due to a friend who sang opera, discovered she enjoyed that music genre too, she said.
“Opera is really cool,” she said. “It sounds good, I listen to a lot of singers … and I like the stories behind every song.”
Yuan has attended opera summer camps and competitions. That led to her winning a number of vocal awards including first place in the American Protégé International Vocal Competition.
While Yuan does not take lessons anymore, she studied the violin from fourth to eighth grade and decided to bring one with her on a group trip to Nepal to help underprivileged children in the summer of 2019.
“The goal was to paint a school and teach English, but I thought it would be cool to bring an instrument to expose (the children) to my passion,” she said.
Yuan said she practiced some pieces by Mozart and Bach to perform, but the children were more interested in the violin itself than in the music. She said they wanted to play the violin, which is what inspired her to co-found the Music4Kids organization upon her return home. She is also its president.
Music4Kids provides free music lessons to students by musically-gifted high schoolers. Due to the pandemic, the lessons were given virtually, though in-person lessons have recently begun. The organization also accepts instrument donations so they can be given to the students. For details, go to Music4KidsSD.org.
“Seeing the glint in their eyes, how excited they are to learn new pieces … seeing their fascination in their eyes, (represents) my journey with music, my hope and joy with it as well,” Yuan said.
Del Norte High counselor Kathleen Marron, who nominated Yuan, said that “Amid the COVID shutdown, Flora made sure the voices of many were heard by utilizing her own talents to cultivate, inspire and teach others.”
Yuan said her interests also include cyber security. She competes on her school’s team, which was a national semi-finalist. She also competes on Del Norte’s iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine) team, is part of Del Norte’s writing center and in National Honor Society. Outside of school she is in environmental organizations.
When she attends college next fall, Yuan said she would like to double major in music and something in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).
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