Quiet Leader: Matei Alexianu '10
Posted on: July 13
If you’ve seen the recent Intel commercial where co-workers are fawning over a computer nerd and the commercial ends with “Our rock stars aren’t like your rock stars,” you have some idea of Matei Alexianu’s presence in our school.
As the super-intellectual half of the ASB president/vice president ticket last year, Matei made an unlikely pairing with an extreme extrovert, and the “Odd Couple” combination proved surprisingly successful. While his political partner had grand plans, Matei had the attention to detail and follow-through necessary to put in place their ideas and strengthen community spirit at Saint George’s.
Academically, Matei finished high school with a 3.994 GPA – one A-minus in four years. He has taken 12 Advanced Placement classes, which is the most any student has ever taken at our school. One of those courses was also done as a self-study, as we don’t teach AP French Literature, and it is the only exam for which he has received a score of “4.” He has scored “5” on all the rest of his AP exams so far.
Matei also is the only student to have taken two different AP languages, French and Chinese. In 2007 he scored in the top ten percent on a national French exam, earning a Laureate National commendation, and this past summer he volunteered at a French language camp. Having been born in Romania and visiting there and in Europe often may have something to do with his interest in other languages – an interest honored with the top Spokane Scholars award in World Languages.
Though he enjoys math (his teachers cite his skills as “brilliant”), what really excites him is the field of economics, where he can combine his love of math, history, and international relations. Because of his global perspective, having seen both the poverty of his homeland and the relative wealth in other areas of Europe, he hopes to have a career that impacts economic policy in a way that would make a difference on an international scale.
Outside the classroom, Matei has been a member of our state championship Knowledge Bowl team for four years, and he was business manager for the Robotics team, helping recruit sponsors to enable the team to travel to competitions. He was notoriously quiet his freshman year, and so he joined the debate class. Now a rather fierce debater, Matei often pushes himself to reach outside his comfort zone.
He also competed at state in tennis and enjoys hiking, kayaking, skiing, and sailing. In the last several years he has taken up cycling, often riding 18 miles each way to school. And he plays the violin with the Spokane Youth Symphony.
Matei, a truly remarkable student and surprising leader, is headed to the University of Oxford this fall. I can honestly say he is well on the way to making that “big impact” on the world, which he so desires to realize in his lifetime. I look forward to being able to say “I knew him when…”
-- Cathy McMeekan, Director of College Counseling
