Claire Ashmead of Hathaway Brown School is 'relentlessly curious'

ashmead.jpgView full sizeClaire Ashmead, a senior at Hathaway Brown School in Shaker Heights, "is relentlessly curious and finds the world endlessly fascinating," according to a school administrator.

SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Spend 30 minutes with Hathaway Brown School's Claire Ashmead, and the conversation ricochets from the plight of Tibetan refugees and the structural deficiencies of U.S. congressional governance, to Taylor polynomials (more on that in a minute), the agony of cross-country running and the ecstasy of pie shakes.

This last is a blended, drinkable concoction of pie ingredients; apparently chocolate-pecan is the best!

The wide-ranging subject matter doesn't result from a lack of focus. Just the opposite. The 18-year-old is knowledgeable about, and has an infectious interest in, a startling variety of topics.

"She knows things that no one her age knows because she is relentlessly curious and finds the world endlessly fascinating," Terry McCue, Hathaway Brown's assistant head of school, said in nominating the University Heights resident as a Senior Standout. "In my 25 years in education, I would say that Claire is one of the most intellectual, bright and motivated students I have ever worked with."

That aptitude shows itself in academics, where Claire, her school's Senate president, has a 4.47 grade-point average and perfect SAT and ACT scores, and took 20 honors and Advanced Placement courses during her four years in high school.

Last year, to stay prepared in her AP Calculus class, Claire taught herself about Taylor polynomials -- a tool mathematicians use for analytical problem-solving -- during spring break. "It wasn't all of spring break," she said a little sheepishly. She speaks French and Chinese, hopes to learn Spanish for fun. "If I can squeeze Arabic in there as well, I will. I don't want to overdo it," she said.

Her success isn't confined to the classroom. There's:

• Music (she's a pianist, and the principal flutist for Cleveland's Contemporary Youth Orchestra, though she worries her piccolo practicing irritates the neighbors).

• Writing (among other honors, her poem "The Boy and His Buffalo" won the Cleveland Museum of Art's Baker-Nord poetry contest this year, and her play about a young man's encounter with his girlfriend's sister was chosen for performance at this spring's Hathaway Brown Student Playwriting Festival).

• Science research (she was part of a NASA Glenn Research Center-sponsored student team that studied how harsh space conditions affect polymers).

• Volunteerism (she spent time helping Tibetan refugees in India, met with formerly homeless Cleveland women staying in transitional housing and interned in Sen. Sherrod Brown's Cleveland office assisting constituents).

Claire's athletic accomplishments aren't quite as stellar, but they're more satisfying, she says, because they required a different sort of effort than academics.

Her sense of humor shows up in her description of trying to improve her performance on the varsity cross-country team: "Building even a little endurance . . . is like climbing a small mountain," she wrote in an essay titled "On Becoming an Athlete." "It takes effort, frustration and occasionally a pickaxe."

Claire, the daughter of Dr. Graham Ashmead of New York City and Elizabeth Meers of University Heights, has decided to attend Princeton University. With her varied interests, she knows choosing a major -- and later a career -- from all those compelling possibilities will be tough.

Her ideal job "would probably involve traveling and some form of social activism," Claire says. "I like a lot of things, and hopefully it will all work out. I'm an optimist."

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