Theresa Oei and friend (Photo by Lenora Sumsky)
MANCHESTER – Theresa Oei may be the only person at her school who would use "really lucky" to explain her perfect score on the SAT.
The East Catholic High School junior was in Glasgow, Scotland, to compete in the World Irish Step Championships in April on the first day SAT scores were posted online.
"I was getting ready, doing my hair, when my dad went on the computer," said Miss Oei.
It was no joke when he said, "Wow, Theresa, you got a perfect score."
"We couldn’t believe it. It was April Fool’s Day," she said. "We checked it 20 times that day to make sure they were real; that [the perfect score] was still there."
Even though it was 4 a.m. in Connecticut, Miss Oei called to share the good news with her mom, Ellen, who has been Miss Oei’s teacher for most of her life.
"It was really lucky, exciting, and special," said Miss Oei.
The current SAT, introduced in 2005, consists of three sections: math, reading comprehension and writing. The highest score for each section is 800 points. Of 1.5 million 2009 high school graduates who took the nearly four-hour test, 297 achieved a perfect score of 2,400; 12 were from Connecticut.
In recent years, several East Catholic High School students have earned perfect scores on individual sections, but none has championed all sections.
Miss Oei said she prepared for the test using SAT prep books.
"I also think the biggest thing is overall reading from a very young age, "she said. "It’s so important to read well-written works, not just for the vocabulary, but for being able to understand main ideas and to do that critical reading and writing for grammar."
Prior to freshman year at East Catholic, Miss Oei was home-schooled, along with three siblings.
"I like going to school. It’s a neat experience. I love learning and I love the environment," she said.
"I think being home-schooled really infused in me a love for learning," said Miss Oei. "Learning isn’t something a teacher teaches you; learning is a personal experience."
Dr. Lawrence DeJohn, guidance counselor at East Catholic High School, said of Miss Oei, "Theresa is very academically capable, across the board.
"She is not one to sing her praises and she has a very humble way of expressing her accomplishments," he noted.
Those accomplishments, which also include placing 38th in the world in her category in step dancing, are many and varied, a blend of the arts and the academic.
Miss Oei and her parents, who are members of St. Paul Parish in Glastonbury, were looking for a Catholic high school when they chose East Catholic.
"That Catholic environment was really important to my parents and to me," she said. [It was important to have] that healthy environment for growing up because high school is such an important couple of years. A large part of your formation [occurs] during high school, so it’s important to have that Catholic environment if you want that to be part of your life when you’re an adult," she said.
Miss Oei is a member of the math team, which recently racked up its own awards in a statewide competition, and the choral ensemble, and she is also a peer minister at East Catholic. Outside of school, she plays piano, studies ballet with the Connecticut Concert Ballet and is a student teacher with Griffith Academy of Irish Dance in Wethersfield.
She also has accumulated an astonishing number of state, national and international science and math awards. Competitions that generally begin with local science fairs have taken her to Washington, San Francisco and, most recently, Houston, where she received a gold medal for her project, titled: "Prototype Dual Kite Power System to Harvest High Altitude Wind Energy." It uses kites to harness wind energy
With that same project, she also snagged first-place honors in the high school division of the Future Sustainability Awards at the Connecticut Science Fair, held recently at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, as well as a slew of awards in such areas as physical science, mathematics, applied technology, engineering, energy research and more.
"I really enjoy science, the process of exploration and discovery, the element of finding out what the world around me is like," she said.
"Each project is different, but generally, after coming up with the idea, it takes six months to complete. You begin with a research plan and create a backboard and research paper that includes your hypothesis, procedures, materials, conclusion and future applications," said Miss Oei.
Other award-winning projects of hers include the design of an improved sand fence system to accelerate the growth of sand dunes and prevent coastal erosion and, her favorite, the design of an inexpensive filter that uses seashells to detoxify lead-contaminated liquid waste and groundwater. Lead contamination is an increasing problem in developing countries.
"It was just PVC pipe all connected [with] crushed seashells inside," she said. "I was able to remove all the lead because seashells are made of calcium carbonate and there is a chemical reaction that happens; also because of their unique structure that humans can’t really reproduce."
With this project, she won the Connecticut Science Fair and placed second in the International Science and Engineering Fair.
Miss Oei is a little embarrassed by the attention her achievements have attracted. And while she is dedicated and hardworking, she is quick to share the credit and to look at the big picture.
"I think you have to keep things in perspective. [Have] faith that God will take your life where he’s going to take it and trust that God will provide for you," she said. "[Don’t] worry about the small stuff because he has his plans for you; and whatever that is, I’m sure he’ll take care of you."
