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Chaney soph gains early recognition for science aptitude
By HAROLD GWIN
YOUNGSTOWN
Kyla Geisel doesn’t know where she wants to go to college yet, but the 14-year-old West Side girl knows she’s got a pretty good option in her pocket.
Kyla, who will enter the 10th grade at Chaney High School this fall, won a $15,000 annual renewable scholarship to Ohio Wesleyan University for outstanding achievement in science at the Ohio State Science Day Fair in May.
Right now, Ohio Wesleyan isn’t on her list, she said, explaining that she’s more interested in Ohio State University or New York University.
Her career focus lies generally in the medical field, she said, suggesting that she might like to be a pediatrician or work in emergency medicine. But brain or heart surgery also are interesting possibilities, and there’s even a thought about being a music teacher, she said.
Kyla, daughter of Raelynn Geisel of Youngstown, is a volunteer at the West Side Community Center on Matta Avenue, and it was the center that helped get her and other city children to the state contest by securing a Success Grant from the Wean Foundation.
“These children normally do not have the resources to even purchase supplies for an entry, so this grant really raised a lot of excitement around the center,” said Bridget Cramer, center director.
Kyla is a member of the center’s Teen Group, a junior leader for its Girls of Joy program, a jobs worker for its Summer Feeding Program and a Bible school teacher.
She also is a competitive roller skater and will be going to the Great Lakes Regional competition this week.
She finds time to do local theater, having appeared in Top Hat productions of “Aladdin” and “The Earth Trembles,” and was a member of the Youngstown Junior Connection troupe.
She’s been entering science fairs since the fourth grade, said her grandmother, Dorothy Leonard, with whom she lives. Leonard has been a science project mentor for Kyla and other young people at the center.
Kyla’s winning entry this year, “Eye Tricks: Optical Illusions. Seeing is believing — Or Is It?” was an expansion of an earlier version she entered in the science fair last year.
It’s also the basis for her entry next year, she said, explaining that she will expand her research base to prove that you can trick your mind.
Kyla said she chose the optical-illusion theme, “Because I like the eyeball. It’s pretty cool.”
She said she didn’t expect to win a scholarship this year.
“I’m only a ninth- grader,” she said, noting that scholarships usually go to juniors and seniors.
She could earn scholarships to other colleges if she wins again.