About the program
The International Baccalaureate diploma program is a two-year program that requires students to take IB classes in six subject areas, write an extended essay, take a class on the theory of knowledge and do community work outside the classroom. It is considered one of the most rigorous high-school programs available, and the diploma is recognized by universities around the world.
Several times a week, Max Racelis goes to work at the University of Washington's radiation biology lab, where he studies how variations of a specific human gene affect instances of cancer.
Nothing extraordinary about that, really — except that Racelis is only 18, a senior at Interlake High School in Bellevue.
While Racelis probes the mysteries of the gene, fellow Interlake student Ankur Dave, 17, leaves school early so he can write computer code to control widgets on a blog for the engineering firm CH2M HILL.
Instead of eating a sandwich in Interlake's lunchroom, Wesley Zhao, 17, has held lunchtime brown-bag sessions at CH2M HILL, persuading engineers many years older to write for the company's new blog, which he and Dave helped develop.
And rather than working on science homework after school, Priyanka Saha, 18, works with prominent scientists at the Institute for Systems Biology, helping to identify, catalog and measure the amounts of every protein found in the human body.
These four students are members of the first graduating class of an innovative program for gifted students
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