Culver students earn QuestBridge scholarships covering tuition, expenses to Princeton, Colgate

Culver Academies seniors Cynthia (Yaxin) Deng and George (Yehur) Bondarenko have been awarded QuestBridge full four-year college scholarships.

Deng, who is from Milpitas, California, will attend Princeton, while Bondarenko, who is from Sumy, Ukraine, and lives in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, while not at Culver,  will attend Colgate.

Deng, who grew up in northeast China, plans to major in neuroscience but is considering switching to neuroengineering, which combines neuroscience and engineering to understand, repair, and enhance neural systems, or biomedical engineering, which focuses on medical equipment and prosthetics.

She has long been fascinated by human behavior, inspired by her father’s interest in philosophy, world religions, and the meaning of life.

“He would talk to me about all of these concepts and philosophical ideas, and I thought it was very interesting. That branched into a more scientific perspective,” she said. “I did a lot of studying related to neuroscience throughout high school.”

While she values neuroscience, Deng is drawn to engineering because she sees it as offering more practical applications because she would be developing products. She said neuroscience is more laboratory and research based and she’s not sure she wants to do that.  

She said she believes Culver prepared her well for college and helped build her resume. She was on the rowing and speech teams.

“Culver gives you a lot of leadership opportunities,” she said.

Bondarenko knew about QuestBridge because he had been a QuestBridge summer scholar. He worked this past summer with a Colgate professor studying public health.

“It was an opportunity to explore different summer programs,” he said.

He said he applied to Colgate because it is a highly ranked liberal arts college known for its rigorous studies with a close-knit community in a beautiful residential setting. Bondarenko plans to major in biochemistry and might try to get a job in the biotech industry, but said he most likely will attend medical school.

“The main two areas I’m thinking about right now are trauma surgery and orthopedic surgery,” he said. “I like the idea of saving lives every day. That’s why I like trauma surgery, but I think orthopedic surgery also is very interesting.”

Bondarenko is on the wrestling team and is a member of the Future Healthcare Professionals, the Community Service Council and a co-president of the Coding Club.

QuestBridge connects high-achieving high school seniors from low-income backgrounds with full four-year scholarships to the nation’s top colleges. QuestBridge announced on Dec. 1 that out of 7,026 finalists, 2,550 high school seniors matched with 55 partner universities. Culver had three finalists.

“This year’s Match Scholarship Recipients embody excellence in so many ways, and we're excited to support them as they continue to dream big,” said Ana Rowena Mallari, co-founder and CEO of QuestBridge. “Since QuestBridge’s founding over 30 years ago, we've witnessed the incredible impact our Scholars can make in their lives, families, and communities and we know that this year's students will make a positive impact, too.”