Glynn Academy senior Griffin Lee sees the finish line and does not plan to slow down anytime soon.
Lee has spent his final high school year with an eye toward the future, applying to Ivy League schools and other prestigious colleges and universities, and interviewing for scholarship opportunities that include full tuition coverage, all while maintaining top grades and test scores.
Lee was named this year’s Glynn County and region STAR Student, having earned the highest SAT score among his peers. He’s now headed to the state STAR Student competition, which includes essay writing and interviews.
He is also a candidate for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program, which selects up to 161 students each year. It is one of the nation’s highest honors for high school students.
“It’s been really busy this year with all of college applications, and then the scholarship interviews and all of that,” Lee said. “It’s been nice to finally be done, and I’m excited.”
Lee has been accepted to numerous colleges, along with more than one full-ride opportunity. He received acceptance letters from Yale, Stanford, Brown, Duke, the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech and Emory.
He was awarded Georgia Tech’s Stamp Scholarship, a full-ride to the Atlanta university. He has considered declaring a major in chemical and biomolecular engineering at Georgia Tech.
“I’m interested in applying genetic engineering techniques to solve environmental problems, like eradicating invasive species or creating renewable algae biofuels,” he said.
Lee has grown up in Coastal Georgia, living in Savannah before moving to Glynn County. His father, Jason Lee, works as an ecologist at the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
Griffin Lee has spent much of his free time throughout his adolescence surfing and camping.
He was also named a Foundation Fellow at the University of Georgia, a prestigious honor that covers all four years’ tuition.
Lee chose Jennifer Brashear, a chemistry teacher at Glynn Academy, as his STAR Teacher.
“I’ve had her in several chemistry classes over the past few years, and she’s always been really helpful,” Lee said. “I’ll stay after school to ask questions about topics that go beyond the scope of what we’re learning in class. She’s always been very engaged and interested in helping me.”
On top of classes and interviews and college applications, Lee also stays involved in numerous extracurricular activities at Glynn Academy. He runs cross country, is a member of the Model UN team and Ethnology Club, serves as co-president of the school’s National Honor Society and president of the Science Olympiad team.
“It was hard, and it was a lot to bite off, juggling my busiest year of classes with cross country and Model UN and Science Olympiad,” Lee said. “I realized I’ve really spent my entire life up to this point building a résumé and building credentials that would allow me to win those scholarships and win admission into those universities. So I really felt like I would be cheating myself if I didn’t just give it one last push to try to apply to as many top schools as I could.”