From Bethesda Magazine: Extraordinary teens

Oscar José Machado Morón

Northwest High School

Oscar José Machado Morón’s grandmother signed him up to study at a music conservatory in his native Venezuela when he was 4 years old. 

After a year of music education and theory, students were released “like chickens in a coop” to run around the conservatory and choose an instrument, Oscar recalls. The rooms with pianos, violins and clarinets were “packed to the brim [with students], so I had to go downstairs, where I heard someone playing the bassoon. I liked it. The rest is history, I guess.” 

A 17-year-old junior at Northwest High School in Germantown, where he lives, Oscar came to the U.S. with his family when he was 8 to escape dangerous political and social conditions. Soon after, his mother enrolled him in the prestigious DC Youth Orchestra Program, where his leadership and technical expertise flourished. 

The early days were rough, however. He could play music and keep the beat, but he didn’t speak English yet, so he couldn’t understand his teacher’s directions. 

“It took a lot of mental commitment and a lot of practice,” he says. 

Now Oscar performs as the principal bassoonist for the DC Youth Orchestra and its Young Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra. Since 2022, he also has worked with highly respected musicians and mentors through the Washington Musical Pathways Initiative, a talent development program for young musicians who identify as Black, indigenous, or a person of color and want to pursue college-level musical studies and professional careers. 

Washington Musical Pathways Initiative Artistic Director Jamila Hanner describes Oscar as a humble and resilient emerging leader who uses music to express himself.  

“I see his relationship with the bassoon like a friend and companion, growing together each day and each week, working together to not only tell their own story, but make connections with others in a meaningful way,” Hanner says. 

While Oscar is considering studying chemical engineering in college, he knows he will continue playing the bassoon. He may even give lessons. 

 “It keeps me going,” he says. “I always make a joke that the bassoon is the other sibling I never got. I know it’s going to stick with me.” 

—Robin L. Flanigan 

Kosette Koons-Perdikis

St. Andrew’s Episcopal School

When Kosette Koons-Perdikis co-led a fundraising team for the ​​Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) in 2023, she was disappointed with the group’s initial performance, having raised just a few thousand dollars in the first three weeks.  

The Chevy Chase resident had been nominated by her older sister and selected to run as a candidate in LLS’s Student Visionaries of the Year campaign, a seven-week fundraising challenge held annually that her sister had done in the past. Kosette, who believed the team could do more, sprang into action. She recruited new team members, forged partnerships with local businesses and sent more than 5,000 emails to potential donors over the seven weeks. Kosette says she felt a personal connection to the cause because her mother had fought thyroid cancer when Kosette was 5.  

Kosette led her team to raise more than $450,000, the third most of any team in the country, according to LLS. She also broke the all-time ​​Washington, D.C.-area individual fundraising record with $287,000, according to LLS.  

“When I’m passionate about something, I tackle it head-on,” says Kosette, now a 17-year-old senior at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Potomac. “I can be a little stubborn at times, but it helps when I need to get things done. My parents call it my ‘beast mode.’ ” 

Kosette also brings passion to her academics. She carries a 4.8 GPA, and William Ferriby, who taught Kosette chemistry in 10th grade, says she’s an “academic superstar” who would read and prepare for lab sessions so she could immediately start her experiments at school.  

“What I really appreciated was the degree to which she helped a lot of other students in class,” Ferriby says. “If another student had a question, she was often already there helping them.”  

Kosette is also a leader on her school’s lacrosse and soccer teams. Her soccer skills earned her a place in the 12th Annual High School All-American Game and she will continue her soccer career at Duke University in the fall.   

Her success hasn’t come without roadblocks. She suffered a nearly career-ending ankle injury in November 2023, leading to surgery and a six-month recovery.  

Kosette plans to participate in Duke’s Collegiate Athlete Premedical Experience and hopes to attend medical school.   

—Amy Reinink

Dina Mabrouk

Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School

Dina Mabrouk came with her family to the U.S. from Egypt in 2012, when she was in kindergarten. She knew no English and still felt out of place after learning the language, unable to understand references to pop culture.  

Now an 18-year-old senior at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School (B-CC) in Bethesda, Dina is a student ambassador, at times using her native Arabic to help newly arriving immigrants feel more comfortable. “Because of my experience, I really wanted to help other people assimilate faster,” says Dina, who lives in Silver Spring. 

Surprised by how little other students at B-CC knew about Islam and to break stereotypes shared on social media, Dina co-founded the school’s Muslim Student Association at the beginning of her sophomore year. “I like being able to educate people and let them know that what you think is not always actually the case,” she says. 

Dina participates in B-CC’s Lazarus Leadership Fellows Program, which uses community service projects to teach teens leadership skills. Partnering with the Bethesda-based organization Meaningful Futures, she says she devoted 215 hours to creating and running Achieving Art for All, a summer art camp for children with autism that took place in 2024. Her younger brother has the disorder. 

Bruce Adams, founder of the Lazarus program and former B-CC parent, says Dina stands out from the 400 fellows selected over the past 28 years. “We live in such divided and difficult times,” he says. “We need people who see problems and figure out how to solve them. … People who can listen but also lead. People who inspire others and get stuff done. We need more Dinas.” 

While volunteering with the campers in the summer of 2024, Dina received an education of her own. “I learned you have to be willing to adapt as a leader, and you have to expect that things will go wrong,” she says. “I’m really glad I was able to step outside of my comfort zone to make something truly extraordinary happen for these kids.” 

Dina says that in addition to her high school studies, she works at Georgetown Cupcake in Bethesda and takes three classes a week at Montgomery College. 

“I should always keep on evolving, keep on growing,” says Dina, who plans to pursue an accounting degree. “I’m not a one and done.” 

—R.L.F.

Ava Bell

Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School

Georgetown Visitation math and science teacher Michal Kolpak recalls with awe Ava Bell’s performance in his honors precalculus class​ in fall 2023, when she was a junior​.  

​​​The class, which he describes as one of the Washington, D.C., school’s most ​​difficult​​, ​​challenges students​​​ ​​​to use a proof he provides to solve complex math problems​​.​​ 

“Ava was the only person who would religiously correct her own work,” Kolpak says. “She understood that the process was to do the work, make mistakes and improve. Right away, it was clear that she possessed a rare sort of intellectual maturity.” 

Ava​, now a senior,​ brings that same determination and confidence to every school activity she participates in, from the Spanish Honor Society to cross-country and indoor track. She credits her upbringing—her mother ​immigrated​ ​to the United States​ from Jamaica—and her desire to create inclusive spaces for women and people of color as motivations.  

“My mom reminds me to be grateful for everything I have,” says Ava, 18, of Gaithersburg. “I remember learning that she didn’t always have enough food growing up, and that really stuck with me, to be grateful for every meal.” 

Ava leads her school’s Building, Engineering, Design & Architecture Club, and as a junior co-led the club to a first prize at the ACE (Architecture, Construction, Engineering) Mentor Program of the Greater Washington Metropolitan Area’s presentation night. The group designed an Olympic Stadium to replace ​RFK​ Stadium in Washington, D.C. Ava says the club chose that project because it would be “a good representation of how diverse groups can unite together and play sports.” 

“When I joined the club my freshman year, I realized I had a passion for experimenting and creating, and there was something about doing it in an all-women environment that felt really empowering to me,” Ava says​, referring to Visitation’s all-girls student body​. 

Ava says she has worked to create a similarly empowering environment for other girls, especially Black girls, through the school’s Black Women’s Society. There, she shares her Jamaican heritage and ​has helped plan the club’s annual Black History Month assembly each year during her time at Visitation.​​     ​ 

Ava plans to attend Cornell University in the fall and hopes to become a doctor.  

—A.R.

Erfan Nabizada

Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School

Erfan Nabizada was just 15 when he fled his home city of Kabul, Afghanistan, during the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2021. He made the harrowing escape to the United States along with his uncle and older brother. Erfan’s four sisters and his father remained in Afghanistan.  

During the first year after his arrival, Erfan spoke on a panel about climate change with former Vice President Al Gore, created a virtual school for girls in Afghanistan via Zoom, and became an integral part of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School community, where he is now a senior.  

“When I met him at 15, he had experienced more successes and struggles and setbacks than most adults experience in a lifetime,” says David Lopilato, faculty adviser for ​​The Amplifier, the county’s student-run magazine. Erfan is currently a writer for the magazine and has also served as editor-in-chief. “Not all of his projects meet a finish line, but every time he has a setback, he figures out some other way of making a difference.” 

Erfan, now 18, lives in Chevy ​Chase with his uncle and older brother. He says his activism started early. As a preteen in Kabul, he aimed to improve his environment by planting trees, and he printed and distributed flyers that pushed for peace.

Even on Erfan’s journey to Maryland, which involved stops in Qatar, Germany and New Mexico, he says he tried to be helpful, translating for and supporting those less fortunate than him. “I have always had a feeling of responsibility for others, and I’ve brought that with me over here,” Erfan says. “Even a little action can change a lot.” 

Erfan works as an associate for Link Strategic Partners, a Washington, D.C., consulting firm, which enables him to contribute to his household income. He began as an intern in 2023, and now works there 15 hours per week after school. He also coordinates with lawyers and other officials to obtain green cards for his family members who remain overseas. 

Erfan hopes to attend college locally and wants to continue his social justice work.

—A.R.

MJ Charles

McLean School

MJ Charles grew up with music as the heartbeat of his family.  

His father, from Trinidad and Tobago, and his mother, from the Dominican Republic, would sing and dance to  the sounds of salsa and merengue in the family’s music room. His grandparents bought him a toy piano when he was 3, and his parents say he amazed them by tapping out melodies instead of just pounding on the keys. 

By 7, he was performing songs on his keyboard at church.  

In 2023, MJ won best piano soloist at the Festivals of Music competition in Virginia Beach, where his jazz band also finished in first place. That same year, he was a soloist at a summer program at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. 

“He’s frankly one of the most talented musicians I have ever come across firsthand,” says Isador “Izzy” Miller, MJ’s piano teacher. “His ears are incredible. He can hear a Chopin piano piece or even a big band piece and play it right back.”  

MJ, of Potomac, is an 18-year-old senior at McLean School in Potomac. He says music is now not only a passion but also a way to cope with ADHD and dyslexia. 

“It’s a healthy way of letting my emotions out,” MJ says. 

Living with ADHD hasn’t always been easy, he says, but he now views the unique wiring of his brain as a strength.  

“When I’m really focused on learning a new song, I’m able to dig into it on a deeper level than most people because I focus only on that,” MJ says.  

Music also fosters social connection for MJ, who began volunteering at The Village at Rockville after his grandfather who lived there passed away. Arts and crafts and games of balloon tennis quickly morphed into piano performances. MJ says he bonded with a Spanish-speaking woman who was receiving care for dementia, and connected with her by learning to play the salsa music she remembered from her youth.  

“Moments like these illustrate MJ’s empathy and commitment to bringing happiness to others, especially those who may feel isolated,” says Natalie Stapert, assistant head of the upper school at McLean.                                           

MJ is also the co-founder of his school’s rock climbing team and the leader of its People of Color Club. He hopes to pursue architectural engineering in college.  

—A.R.

Kenneth Shue

Richard Montgomery High School

As an eighth grader, Kenneth Shue asked his parents a simple question: Why can’t we recycle plastic bags?  

He learned that plastic bags and plastic films can contaminate other recyclables and must be processed at a separate facility. The answer spurred Kenneth’s ongoing passion for sustainability. He’s now a 17-year-old junior at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville and in the International Baccalaureate program. 

Kenneth, who lives in Potomac, co-founded the Growing & Giving Club, part of the Chinese American Parent Association of Montgomery County, in 2020. He pitched a countywide “Be a Zero Hero” program to the Growing & Giving Club, ​and the program launched in ​2023. The initiative, which aims to educate the public about properly recycling plastic bags and films, began with a dozen or so bins in local Chinese-language schools. Kenneth began visiting schools during events and celebrations, and designed educational material in English, Chinese and Spanish as the program expanded.

“We wanted to lessen friction as much as possible to make it as easy as possible to recycle these items,” Kenneth says.  

The program now boasts more than 50 volunteers, has established 19 recycling sites and has collected 2,000 pounds of plastic film waste, which is brought to either the Shady Grove Transfer Station or stores that are in partnership with NexTrex, which provides material for Trex, a composite decking company. ​Be a Zero Hero​ is active in 34 Montgomery County public schools, and Kenneth hopes to reach 80. He applied to the Clean Water Montgomery Grant ​Program ​and was awarded $38,750 in April 2024. 

Most of the money has been used to print promotional material and rent out venues for events, says Kenneth, whose scientific interests aren’t limited to sustainability. He has worked with a professor at West Virginia University to write a paper about the application of artificial intelligence in emergency rooms, and also leads his school’s biology club, which participates in the annual USA Biology ​​Olympiad.

Julie Yang, president of the Montgomery County Board of Education, says it was about two years ago when she started noticing Kenneth and his group at various community events, from school Earth Day gatherings to church meetings. She says she was struck by the calm and introspective young man’s motivation to spread the word about his project. 

After they got to know each other, Kenneth approached Yang for advice on what he could do better, and how he could do more. He also presented information about the club to the board of education on multiple occasions. 

“He is so motivated, has so much conviction for this cause, and is so knowledgeable,” Yang says. “But he transfers his knowledge in a way that others can receive it.” 

Kenneth hopes to continue pursuing environmental work in college and beyond.  

—A.R.

Megan Chopra

Sidwell Friends School

Megan Chopra remembers being stuck at home in Potomac at the height of the pandemic, reading one book after another.  

From one of them, Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, she learned about the country’s broken criminal justice system, particularly for people who come from marginalized or impoverished backgrounds. 

“It sparked something in me that led to more books and more research and eventually inspired my passion,” says Megan, a 17-year-old senior at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. 

That passion has led to a flurry of far-reaching projects. 

For Yale University’s Challenging Racism in the Law Project, Megan helped conduct research at the National Archives on racial targeting. Through mentorship by a University of Virginia School of Law professor, she also helped compile and analyze qualitative data on efforts around the country that support people recently released from prison to reintegrate successfully into the community.  

Megan also created a website and blog, criminaljusticereform.space, to spread awareness on issues about structural shortcomings in the criminal justice system and developed a two-week course aimed at helping previously incarcerated individuals learn and develop essential workforce skills. 

“Since a very young age, Megan has been a self-motivated, hardworking and compassionate kid,” says her mother, Monica Chopra, adding that in seventh grade, Megan taught weekly virtual English classes to a group of underprivileged kids in India. “She brings an unwavering determination to everything she does.” 

In addition to dreaming of a career in reforming the justice system as a lawyer for disadvantaged defendants, Megan, long interested in sports, also is considering a career in sports management. In July 2024 she self-published Redefining the Field: The Triumphs and Tribulations of Women in Sports. The book, available on Amazon, consists of interviews with trailblazing women in sports management, coaching, business, social justice and journalism. Megan is donating all proceeds to the Women’s Sports Foundation. 

At Sidwell, Megan gives tours and sits on panels for prospective students and families as a member of the Student Ambassador Leadership Team, is editor-in-chief of InLight Magazine and co-president of the Girls Who Start club to help build successful female entrepreneurs. 

“We can all at least make a small impact,” Megan says. “I’ve seen that throughout my work, and it inspires me to never give up.” 

—R.L.F.

Noah Wilkins

Maret School

In fifth grade, Noah Wilkins couldn’t decide between learning the trumpet or the saxophone in band class, so he flipped a coin. 

That coin toss began a relationship with the saxophone that Noah, now an 18-year-old who lives in Upper Northwest D.C., has used to express himself through classical and jazz music. 

 “A lot of people have this idea that it’s a very rigid form of music, but there are a lot of liberties you can take with it,” he says of classical music.  

Noah is a senior at Maret School in D.C. Since his sophomore year, he has led Maret’s upper school jazz combo, jazz band, and classical wind ensemble. 

 At Levine Music’s Northwest D.C. campus, Noah has earned a place over the past five years in some of the school’s most selective merit-based programs. Logan Massey, the senior director of music education there, describes Noah as “kind, compassionate and engaging,” and says he “expresses gratitude for the contributions of others around him while working hard to ensure that he delivers on his own promises.”

In his freshman year, Noah was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. To increase awareness for the disease, he organized and hosted a 90-minute benefit concert and reception at Levine Music that raised more than $5,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, now called Breakthrough T1D. 

“It was really nice to use music to advocate for something I deal with every day,” he says. 

Noah’s desire to make a difference goes beyond music, and he serves as the upper school’s student body president. 

Noah remembers being behind his peers when it came to reading and writing when he began attending Maret School in first grade, but mentorship from an upper-level student helped him get on track. That experience led to Noah creating and co-leading the Tadpoles and Frogs mentorship club (the school’s athletic teams are known as the Fighting Frogs) during his junior year. The club has 65 members, with 25 students currently paired with lower school students and classrooms. 

Through his mentoring of a third grader, Noah realized that learning goes both ways. 

“Working with him, I was able to teach myself that it’s not about working just to be better or to catch up to everyone else,” Noah says, “but it’s really just working to be proud of yourself and be the best version you can be.” 

—R.L.F.

Stanley Hsu

Montgomery Blair High School

Stanley Hsu trains competitively six days a week with dreams of Olympic gold. The 16-year-old’s athletic pursuit? Table tennis, which has been an Olympic sport since 1988. 

Stanley, who lives in North Potomac, is the highest ranked under-17 member of the USA Table Tennis National Team, which he has been a junior member of since July 2021 and is ranked sixth in the under-19 category. 

A junior at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Stanley has won medals at the International Table Tennis Federation’s (ITTF’s) Pan American Youth Championships, on the pro circuit at World Table Tennis events, and at the U.S. National Table Tennis Championships—and finished just shy of a medal in the quarterfinals of the 2023 ITTF World Youth Championships in Slovenia. 

“When you play a match, all your energy is spent on movements you’ve spent thousands of hours practicing at home,” Stanley says. “Everything else falls away. You don’t hear the crowd. The adrenaline takes over and you just keep as calm as you can.” 

As of January, Stanley has a USA Table Tennis rating higher than 2,500—putting him in the top 1.5% of all table tennis players in the U.S.—but he has a reputation for being humble. 

“A lot of athletes at his level have an arrogance or ‘win at all costs’ kind of mentality,” says Vikash Sahu, one of Stanley’s teachers in Montgomery Blair’s Science, Mathematics, and Computer Science Magnet Program. “At his school club he is always willing to play with newcomers and beginner-level players, and is encouraging to them.” 

That’s the Table Tennis Club—which Stanley founded in 2023 as a sophomore. 

Stanley has needed physical therapy to deal with injuries to his right wrist, right shoulder and right knee, and works with a personal trainer twice a week so his body can generate enough power and speed to stay in peak shape for competitions. 

Stanley’s competitive edge extends beyond the table tennis court. He has been a statewide winner and national finalist in Future Business Leaders of America competitions, and he also builds neural networks and machine learning classifiers—both algorithms involved in artificial intelligence—in his spare time. 

Stanley doesn’t believe in luck, which is why he spends so much time with a paddle in his hand, and keeps his accomplishments in perspective. 

“Before a tournament, I go through this pep talk,” he says. “I tell myself, ‘This doesn’t matter that much in the grand scheme of things.’ At the end of the day, it’s just a sport.”  

—R.L.F.

This year’s Extraordinary Teens photos were taken at Richard Montgomery High School and Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School

This appears in the March/April 2025 issue of Bethesda Magazine.