A young man who was “definitely very shy” when he entered Mount Vernon High School as a freshman will graduate next month first in his class and as president of three student organizations.
Those honors and a host of other achievements have resulted in Mateo Pechon-Elkins’ selection as the Knox Educational Service Center’s (ESC) 2024 Franklin B. Walter All-Scholastic Award winner.
“It’s an honor, and I am grateful,” Pechon-Elkins said.
Principal Cory Caughlan was not surprised by Pechon-Elkins’s selection.
“He has wonderful leadership skills, personality and intellect. That’s not a combination you often see,” Caughlin said.
Ohio’s county ESC superintendents started the All-Scholastic Awards program in 1989 to recognize outstanding senior scholars from across the state. It is named in honor of Walter, Ohio’s 31st state superintendent of public instruction.
Pechon-Elkins, who ranks first academically in his senior class of 263, serves as president of the National Honor Society and president of student government. He was also a founding member and first elected president of the Mayor’s Youth Leadership Council, which allows students to interact with local officials.
A violinist for 10 years, he is a member of the Mount Vernon varsity tennis team and volunteers to help with the weekly hot meal program at Gay Street Methodist Church. On his own, he is learning Japanese and teaching himself to play the piano.
Already accepted at Yale University, Pechon-Elkins is focusing on a professional path that will help to develop answers to policy questions facing government and society in general.
“I want to bring a deep understanding of modern technological advances in order to address the accelerating demand for policy posed by AI (artificial intelligence) and mounting privacy concerns,” he said. “The technology being developed today is incredibly powerful but also incredibly dangerous. Coming to terms with and finding answers for how it will affect jobs, education and personal security is necessary for a flourishing future state. We must work to distill the hope it provides for improving lives while avoiding its dangers.”
Emphasizing that “the educational path to address modern problems is more complicated than a single area of study,” Pechon-Elkins’s academic path at Yale will focus on physics, politics and economics.
“I look forward to working to find a career path that lets me be part of the solutions to the multitude of modern policy questions,” he said. “I would love to work on the national stage, drafting and sponsoring bills in Congress.”
“The sky’s the limit for Mateo’s future,” Caughlan said, a view shared by school counselor Jackie Wihl.
In a letter of recommendation in support of Pechon-Elkins’s Walter All-Scholastic Award nomination, she praised him as “a phenomenal student.”
“Mateo Pechon-Elkins is one of the brightest students I have had in my 38 years of education,” Wihl wrote. “I think it is best to get out of his way and let him thrive because he pushes himself every day.”
Dr. Timm Mackley, superintendent of the Knox ESC, said Pechon-Elkins’s selection was the result of a painstaking committee evaluation of senior nominees also submitted by the Centerburg, Danville, East Knox and Fredericktown school districts.
“Each of the five ESC committee members acted separately in reviewing the application of each district’s nominee, scoring them on a rubric that included academics, extracurricular activities, community service and an essay. Mateo was the unanimous choice among a field of seniors each of whom has achieved records of success. I know each will have outstanding, rewarding futures,” Mackley said.
A previously scheduled visit to Yale prevented Pechon-Elkins and his parents – Katherine Elkins and Jon Chun – from attending the statewide awards luncheon on April 15 at the Nationwide Hotel and Conference Center in Lewis Center. Mackley represented Pechon-Elkins.
As he prepares for the next phase of his education, Pechon-Elkins said he is thankful for his experience at Mount Vernon High School.
“I definitely was very shy as a freshman,” he said. “I am grateful for the teachers I have had and for all of the people I have met.”
