Blue Valley High School junior Noor Haideri received an unexpected shoutout at a recent school-wide assembly.
Haideri had just won first place in the eighth annual Breakthrough Junior Challenge — a global competition centered around inspiring middle school and high school students to get creative with science. The win comes with a $250,000 scholarship.
School officials decided to announce the victory in front of her fellow students after organizing a “ruse” to surprise her.
Haideri won a $250,000 scholarship
- Haideri’s entry in the video competition focused on melanopsin, a protein in the eye that gets stimulated when exposed to blue light emitted by electronics.
- In her video submission, she discussed why looking at our phones in bed at night may make it harder to fall asleep.
- Her submission beat out entries from 2,400 other students ages 13 to 18 from more than 100 countries.
Blue Valley’s principal broke the news
- When Haideri arrived at the assembly, she was told she would be honored for a different award for other work for which she had already received recognition.
- Principal Charles Golden instead announced Haideri had won the Breakthrough competition, to the surprise of her and her family, who were also in attendance.
- Haideri credited her peers at Blue Valley for her success, as they encouraged her and voted for her in the contest.
- “Honestly, it’s a dream come true,” she said. “I’m really grateful and lucky to have this school community here with me, cheering me on.”
School and teacher will also get money
- Blue Valley itself will also get a $100,000 prize for Haideri’s win, which will go toward a new science lab.
- Haideri also gets to select a teacher to give a $50,000 cash prize to, and she says she is picking her science teacher at Blue Valley, Dianne Dunn.
- “She has such a desire for learning,” Dunn said. “She just has a dedication and motivation unlike any student that I’ve worked with before.”
Go deeper: Blue Valley junior wins $250K scholarship in science contest
