Teen’s mind is a good investment

Published 8:41 pm Thursday, June 10, 2010

By Andy Rathbun, Herald Writer

MONROE — You could call Jeremy Ojalehto the $200,000 teen.

The Monroe High School senior earned roughly that much in federal grants and scholarships from Cornell University.

The 17-year-old needs the help, he said.

He has six siblings and can’t afford the Ivy League school on his own. Even with the money, he will face about $24,000 in tuition bills for his four-year education, he said.

Ojalehto clearly earned the aid — he’s one of a handful students at the high school graduating with a 4.0 grade-point average after taking many of the hardest classes available.

Still, he feels grateful for the support.

“It’s only because of them, their generosity, that I’m even able to dream of going,” he said.

Ojalehto, an intense student, hasn’t changed his study habits since being admitted to Cornell, located in Ithaca, N.Y. He still spends four or five hours a night prepping for tests in subjects such as physics and calculus.

“I didn’t really slack off,” he said. “I’m not really sure why.”

He has other interests. He played basketball for two years in high school. He restored a 1988 Mustang GT with some help from his family. He enjoys hunting “pretty much everything.”

He also enjoys reading, though, a fitting pastime for the cerebral teen. He plans to study the human brain at Cornell. He wants to study how — and why — we think.

“Science doesn’t have an explanation for human consciousness,” he said. “Some people venture explanations, but it’s widely not accepted in the scientific community.”

After college, he plans to enlist in the U.S. Marines. None of his immediate family has signed up, but he feels the call.

“I want to serve my country, and when I’m still young, I feel like that would be a good way to do it,” he said.

At times, it sounds like Ojalehto has his entire life mapped out. He worked through high school to get to college. He plans to work through college before going to the military. And then he wants to work through a tour of duty before doing something in the defense industry.

Still, he hasn’t figured everything out.

“I haven’t really thought about settling down at this point,” he said. “It seems like an abstract idea.”

Graduates 2010