With the exception of his religion class, all of John Corso’s classes at Gonzaga College High School in Washington are Advanced Placement classes, including AP Chemistry, AP Biology, AP Economics, AP Computer Science, AP Calculus and AP Literature. Having taken all of his AP tests, the end is near as the only assignment that stands in between him and his high school diploma is a final essay he needs to turn in. Corso has had an eventful four years at Gonzaga, which have led to him to playing the church organ at Mass, being heavily involved in the school’s science program, and graduating as this year’s valedictorian.
“Gonzaga's a really unique school because it's so real. We're situated in such an interesting place (in the city). It's been a lot of fun to do all these different things…we have sports and I've been able to get involved with a lot of community service stuff and great academics here. It's been a lot of fun to just do so many different things,” Corso said.
Corso, who will be attending Stanford University in California in the fall, plans to study bioengineering. He has already had experience in labs, however, as he embraced both Gonzaga’s offered courses and extracurricular programs in science.
“I do a lot of science stuff here at Gonzaga, but I also research outside of school, which is cool. I research at Children’s [National Hospital] up the road, which is again really cool with Gonzaga. I'm able to go up during my free period, take the bus up and work for about an hour and then come back down,” Corso said. “Kind of a unique thing, I don't think I'd be able to do anywhere else.”
His work at the children’s hospital as a research trainee primarily focuses on the brain.
“I work on a specific project where it's a little bit niche, but it's having a mouse run up a ramp. Because our lab studies different ways that brains are injured. So neonatal hypoxia, there's traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, Down syndrome,” Corso said. “You [have] white matter and gray matter in your brain. Gray matter is more of the neurons. White matter is kind of the fatty matter that gives your brain structure and substance and supports its function.”
According to Corso, the conditions he listed are cases where the white matter of the brain breaks down. The mice they study have either been “exposed to injury or genetically bred to be injured.”
The mice are recorded running up the ramp. Brain function is determined by how often their paws fall off the ramp, utilizing AI and image processing software.
He noted that two summers ago, he did some research at Purdue University. He also runs the Gonzaga-WJA Science Fair. Eighth grade students from Washington Jesuit Academy are paired with Gonzaga students, who serve as mentors and help the students create a science fair project.
His yearbook quote is from the song “Philosophy” by Ben Folds Five, which states “Go ahead, you can laugh all you want, I got my philosophy.”
“At Gonzaga, I have certain beliefs of how things should be done. I believe that, for example, student run organizations are probably the best way to go about things. I believe that throwing people in the deep end and having them figure out how to find their own way is probably the best way to do things. Also that people should be treated as adults and things like that. Those parts of Gonzaga have been things that I've really loved,” Corso said.
