Friends and Scholars : Education: Two Palos Verdes Peninsula High School students--who happen to be good friends--will be among 141 Presidential Scholars honored in Washington.

When Felix Wu learned he had been selected as a United States Presidential Scholar, the Palos Verdes Peninsula High School senior decided not to call his friend Lynn Itagaki, who had also applied for the award.

“There was an anxiety about whether she had gotten it or not also,” said Wu, who scored a perfect 1600 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test last year. “I didn’t want to be the one to call her if she hadn’t gotten it.”

As it turned out, his worries were unfounded. Itagaki, who scored 1560 on the SAT, also won the award, the most prestigious honor in the nation for high school students.

“Felix is so well-rounded that I don’t even want to compare myself to him,” Itagaki, 17, said of her friend. “He’s so smart, and a great person too.”

Next month, the two friends and their families will travel to Washington for a week of activities, including a ceremony in their honor at the White House, where they will hear a speech by President Bush. Later, Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander will present them with medallions.

Also planning to attend the ceremony are the teachers the students designated as having most influenced their academic careers.

Itagaki named retired fifth-grade teacher Marjorie Stouffer, who she said “inspired me to be well-rounded, to go into math, sciences and also pursue writing, drama and theater arts.” Wu chose high school history teacher Adrienne Phillips, from whom he learned “a lot about writing essays. To me that is something I’ve been able to use for the rest of my high school classes.”

The students, both of whom will take perfect 4.0 grade-point averages to Harvard University this fall, were among 141 students--seven from California--who were chosen for the award.

Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, which district officials formed this year by consolidating three high schools into one, was among seven schools throughout the nation that produced two Presidential Scholars this year.

“This is the Oscar of academics,” said Palos Verdes Principal Kelly Johnson. “To have (two) Presidential Scholars is just a tremendous honor to this high school and to this school district. This is the big time of academic heavyweights.”

In addition to his full load of honors and college placement courses, Wu is treasurer of the Model United Nations club, which stages debates about world politics, and is a member of the concert choir. He plays piano, composes music and serves as president of the school math club. This year, he placed first in a national math championship sponsored by the American Scholastic Mathematics Assn.

“He’s an incredible young man,” Phillips said. “I would put him up there among the top two or three students I’ve had teaching in the past 27 years. . . . I’ve learned a lot from him.”

Itagaki, who also carries a full load of college-level courses, serves as student body treasurer, associate editor of the yearbook and president of the Delphinians Service Club. She was a varsity cheerleader and a member of the school’s academic decathlon team. She plays violin and made her own dress for the senior prom.

“She’s an outstanding young lady,” Stouffer said. “I remember that she always did her work, she always did the extra bit that was required and came through with everything. I knew she was going places, even in the fifth grade.”

In conversations, Wu is precise, thoughtful and mature, and appears comfortable with his intelligence. Itagaki is also articulate, but has a more modest and playful demeanor.

As part of the award application, students were asked to compose a fictional conversation between themselves and any American figure, living or dead.

Itagaki, who is of Japanese descent, wrote about the late Sen. Spark Matsunaga (D-Hawaii), who was a proponent of a bill that led to restitution for Japanese-Americans who were detained during World War II.

“I had always been fascinated by the Japanese-American plight and the restitution effort,” Itagaki said.

Wu, whose parents emigrated to the United States from Taiwan, wrote about poet Edgar Allan Poe, exploring issues such as “the philosophy of creativity and writing,” he said. Wu said he chose Poe because he liked the author’s use of irony in short stories, such as “Hop-Frog” and “The Cask of Amontillado.”

Wu, who speaks English and Mandarin Chinese, plans to study biological engineering because “I like that cross between both sides of science.” His father is an electrical engineer and his mother is a computer scientist.

Itagaki is considering a career in medicine or East Asian studies. “I wish I was good in just one area so I’d have a clear choice,” she said. Her father is an orthopedic surgeon and her mother manages his office.

The Presidential Scholars Program was established in 1964 to recognize distinguished high school seniors from around the nation. Academic achievement, leadership and involvement in school and community activities are all considered in the selection process.