North Hollywood : Top Local Student Named Tandy Scholar

It’s safe to say that Stephen Sorkin is a math-and-science kind of guy.

The North Hollywood High School senior was captain of the school’s Science Bowl team. He has helped Pasadena second-graders learn to use computers. He’s set up computer networks for the Pasadena health department and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

And, of course, he was just selected one of 100 Tandy Technology Scholars nationwide.

The Los Angeles Unified School District boasts only two such scholars this year, recognized as standard-bearers in the fields of math, science and computers.

Stephen will appear in Tandy/Radio Shack advertisements in the April 22 issue of Time and the April 29 issue of Fortune. The accolade also carries a $1,000 scholarship, which will be spent at Stanford or MIT.

“Right now, I’m leaning toward Stanford,” he said.

To qualify for the Tandy award, Stephen, 17, submitted a brief proposal for a research project on photomultiplier tubes--measuring devices used in high-energy physics applications and medical imaging. The Silver Lake youth researched the project last summer at UCLA.

“It kept me busy,” he joked.

Stephen has other preoccupations as well.

“The Internet is my latest diversion,” he said. “I like going places with my friends and doing other things for fun. I enjoy balancing school and activities outside of school.”

His school college counselor, Susan Bonoff, describes Stephen as a young man who is quick to donate his time and knowledge to others.

“He’s a very unusual student,” she said. “Not only has he completed the entire math curriculum here, but he’s three or four classes shy of completing the general education math requirements at Cal State L.A.”

At Cal State L.A., Bonoff said, Stephen tutored middle-school teachers in his classes who worried about passing the math portion of the California teaching proficiency test.