During Thanksgiving break of his junior year at Center Grove High School, Max Newport’s future started to come into focus.
Driving onto the picturesque Stanford University campus for the first time, Newport almost immediately became inspired to be a part of the school’s Class of 2021.
“Stanford is not the sort of school that typically comes after you, so I was definitely after them,” said Newport, Center Grove High School’s salutatorian for the Class of 2017. “It’s obviously a fantastic school, but I got a chance to visit and just loved it.”
“I was pursuing Stanford very, very hard and worked a lot on my applications.”
Newport, who carries a 4.82 grade-point average at Center Grove, will major in engineering physics at Stanford. He’s scheduled to arrive on campus Sept. 19 and will begin classes six days later.
The 18-year-old could thrive in virtually any academic setting but chose to be part of Stanford’s incoming freshman class over two other impressive suitors — Purdue University and the University of Illinois.
“I picked up some books on physics in seventh grade, started reading and was really interested in it,” Newport said. “I got into high school and was able to take some of the classes that they have here.”
Newport is captain of the Center Grove High School Robotics team. He’s also part of Quiz Bowl, Math and Science Bowl, National Honor Society and was formerly in student government.
Self-motivated since early in his academic career, Newport is grateful to his parents, Trent and Jill, for instilling this in him.
“My parents have been great, but they definitely pushed me toward self-motivation. I ended up being very independent with my school work,” he said. “My parents have never been the type to check my grades every day to make sure I’m on top of things.”
“They’re pushing me to handle everything myself. I think that’s basically always been the case. That started very early.”
Good grades earned Newport the title of salutatorian, but it’s not something he pursued, he said.
“I guess I thought about it as early as middle school, but it’s never really been my end goal. It’s never something I particularly strived for,” Newport said. “I just ended up taking a lot of weighted classes because I wanted to challenge myself.”
Stanford will do just that — academically, socially and geographically.
“Finding new things is something I was definitely looking for in college. Getting away from the things I knew and kind of getting a new experience,” Newport said. “It’s just an entirely new situation to be able to go where I don’t know anyone.”
“I’ve been in this school system all my life, so just being in that position is something that I’ll have to adapt to.”
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THE NEWPORT FILE
Name: Max Newport
Age: 18
Parents: Trent and Jill Newport
Resides: Greenwood
College: Stanford University
Major: Engineering physics
Career goal: Aerospace engineering
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