Abigail Mottahedeh

MAY 2021 STUDENT OF THE MONTH

Future doctor, public speaker, tie dye sweatshirt maker, Headmaster’s Council member, chicken nugget lover.  These are just a few of the many interesting and fun facets of May’s Student of the Month.  Junior, Abigail Mottahedeh.

Abigail has so many interests and active enterprises, she gives new meaning to the expression “multi-passionate.”  Since her freshman year, she “hit the ground running.” In ninth grade Abigail combined her love of engineering, creativity and computer science by inventing an automated dishwashing brush with an app to control the sponge mechanism and winning in the “Most Creative” in the engineering category at the NSHAHS first ever S.T.E.A.M. Fair.  That summer she worked at two internships.  One at New York Imaging and Diagnostics learning the business side of medicine and Cold Spring Harbor Labs studying DNA science.

She has continued to approach school with commitment and great zeal for increasing challenges.  Abigail and her science partner researched and submitted a project called “The Synergistic Effect of Rhamnolipids and Antibiotics Against Bacteria”.  (Roughly translated as the study of antibiotic resistance and how the use of rhamnolipids help open cell membranes to increase the antibiotic effectiveness.)  They are continuing the research this year already having won a LISEF (Long Island Science and Engineering Fair) Special Award as recognized by The Society of In-Vitro Biology for outstanding juniors exhibiting projects in the areas of plant or animal In-Vitro biology or tissue cultures.  They also placed in the NSPC (Neurological Surgery P.C. Health Science Competition) in the Biochemistry category.  In addition, the research paper will be published in the Journal of Student Research.

Continuing with the medical science theme, last summer Abigail took two EDX classes, at MIT and NYU, in biomedical engineering in addition to returning to intern at the New York Imaging center.  At North Shore Abigail has taken full advantage of many of the science-themed clubs and activities such as Medical Explorers, Medical Minds, Science Society and is co-founder of the Experimental Club with Ms. McCarthy as the faculty advisor.

Abigail’s interests go further than her passion for all things science.  She is captain of the 3-D Printing Club, a member of Model Congress, Debate Club, Community Service Club, Mock Trial, Creative Writing Club and was selected to be an Executive Officer of Model UN where she teaches other students the protocols for public speaking and professionalism.  In addition, she was selected to be part of the Headmaster’s Council where she loves being given the opportunity to effect positive change in the school thereby increasing school spirit.

Once her interest is piqued, Abigail always reaches for the high notes.  Her favorite co-curricular is Girls Who Code with Ms. Wilensky, and this year she is Captain!  As a writer for North Shore Notes, she was assigned to write about student art at North Shore and was inspired to do some familiarization research by visiting museums.  She was hooked, and now says her favorite museum is MoMA.  This newly ignited eye for art, sparked an idea for combining her love of fashion and Chesed.  Abigail started a tie-dye sweatshirt business called Hand Made Hood by purchasing blank sweatshirts, dying them custom colors, affixing patches and selling them via Instagram.  She also does tie-dye parties for tweens, and so far has been able to donate more than $900 to Chai Lifeline!  Way to go!

Just in case you wondered if there’s more…Abigail loves chicken nuggets for the crunch factor and takes photos of her favorites, she is a savory food person but adores Dippin’ Dots mint chocolate chip especially, loves the teamwork and fast pace of being on the basketball team and is known as a defensive player, is obsessed with NYC and dreams of going to college there, and loves the color blue.

All of these seemingly disparate activities and interests collectively point in the same direction.  Abigail intends to become a doctor.  Her goals and desires lie in the concept of being a doctor – helping others through molecular science and creativity – reaching for a novel idea and bringing it to fruition – helping the individual leads to helping people globally.  What a beautiful concept to have!

Go for it Abigail!  Congratulations!