Yifei Chen of Plainsboro was one of the 12 students honored by the Star-Ledger this year. A senior at High School North, he was the Middlesex County Scholar.
Chen, who takes mostly weighted honors and advanced courses, has a grade point average of 4.8. He scored a perfect 1600 on the SAT and 800 on four SAT II achievement tests. He has also received the top grade of five in 10 advanced placement tests.
He has studied piano for close to 10 years and has won many competitions. He has performed in the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
He is the son of Benxian Chen, a civil engineer, and Fanping Zhang, a homemaker. The family came to the United States from China when he was 4. Chen will attend Harvard University in the fall.
Chen named High School North math teacher and math team advisor, Judith Cinnamond his most influential teacher. A graduate of Trenton State College, she lives in Medford with her husband, Thomas, a retired industrial arts teacher.
The event at the NJ Performing Arts Center in Newark included a piano performance by Ian Le, 2001 winner. Le, a graduate of High School South, Class of 2001, is graduating from Harvard on June 6.
