Drawing a connection with a fictional television character allowed Jewel Medel to embrace her awkward self.
Medel was a fifth-grader when she discovered “The Big Bang Theory” and forged an instant link with Amy Farrah Fowler, the socially awkward neurobiologist portrayed by Mayim Bialik.
As much as she loved Amy, Medel realized her true fascination was with Bialik herself after researching the actress.
Following her successful stint as the title character in the television show “Blossom,” Bialik earned a doctorate in neuroscience from UCLA in 2007 before joining the cast of “The Big Bang Theory.”
That melding of science and arts set the path for Medel, a three-sport athlete who graduated as the valedictorian of this year’s class at Young Women’s Leadership Academy.
“How many actresses do you know are holding Ph.Ds?” Medel said. “The fact she was this accomplished scientist who actually got her education and went all the way through with it, but still pursued her love of acting. This more structured kind of educational approach to life was something that I saw for myself because if she could do it, then I can do it.”
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For Medel, it’s a love of science, creative writing and poetry. That seemingly incongruent set of interests is the main reason why she chose to attend Brown University in Providence, R.I.
Brown’s open curriculum allows students to personalize their course of study. Medel, 17, plans to double-major in neuroscience and English.
“I couldn’t feasibly see myself doing that anywhere else besides Brown,” Medel said. “Brown is somewhere where I saw myself exploring my intellectual curiosity.”
YWLA English teacher Michelle Grajeda said the two fields of study are more connected than some may think.
“What a lot of people don’t realize is literature involves a great deal of analysis,” said Grajeda, who taught Medel in several classes over the past four years. “Those two things seem to speak to each other. … Literary analysis is based upon a trail of evidence right from the beginning of the text until the end.
“I don’t know about science as much as Jewel, but that’s somewhat like the scientific process. You might hypothesize at the beginning, see where the evidence leads you, and then you need to synthesize that and accept that.”
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Those two disciplines perfectly describe Medel’s ambition.
“As long as I’ve known that I wanted to do neuroscience, I’ve known longer that I really love to read and I really love to write,” Medel said. “Literary arts really speak to me.”
Medel drew much of her drive from participating in basketball, volleyball and track at YWLA.
YWLA competed as an independent sports program throughout Medel’s four years there. In her four years on the basketball team, the Cardinals were 29-89. In two seasons in volleyball, YWLA was 19-36.
“My coaches always called it ‘mental toughness,’” Medel said. “That’s something really valuable I learned here at YWLA and our sports programs. Yeah, we really weren’t the best team out there. We weren’t the most athletic. We weren’t the fastest. We weren’t the strongest, at times. But with every loss came an opportunity to learn.”
YWLA girls basketball coach Prentiss Johnson said Medel turned her athletic experience into something productive.
“Those were life lessons that no matter what, you fight through adversity,” Johnson said. “You work hard and know that ultimately you’re going to learn something through this tough time.”
That outlook fits the mission of YWLA, a San Antonio ISD all-girls charter school.
“It’s called the Young Women’s Leadership Academy, and so the coaching staff, the teachers, the faculty, the staff, all of us work to help the students understand what it means to be a leader,” Grajeda said. “I think being a leader is different from always winning. She’s had instilled since she’s been on our campus this idea we’re looking for growth and we’re looking for persistence.”
That persistence was a plus the past three months when campuses were shut down and students were forced to finish the semester through remote learning. She likened it to basketball, where players must think on the fly and adjust to a fast-paced game. Her experience as an athlete allowed her to finish the semester strong.
“When all of this is over and everyone returns to work and everyone returns to school, hopefully we come back better knowing that we’ve gotten through it,” Medel said. “That’s something I think I’ve learned from basketball, volleyball and track.”
Medel addressed her class as the valedictorian during YMLA’s graduation ceremony Thursday night at Alamo Stadium.
She doesn’t take the title lightly as the top-ranked student in a class of 49, the largest ever in school history.
“Every single one of my peers, my classmates, my friends are going to be successful in some way because they are such amazing young women,” Medel said. “It’s an honor to be on top of this class, because this class is amazing.”
dhinojosa@express-news.net
Twitter: @hinojosa_david
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