Rancho Santa Fe junior receives Yale Club of San Diego Book Award

Rancho Santa Fe resident Dillon Lerach, a junior at Pacific Ridge School in Carlsbad, was one of 16 San Diego County high school students who received the 2012 Yale Club of San Diego Book Award at a private ceremony held May 20. This is the 10th year that the Yale Club of San Diego has presented the award—a certificate from the Yale Club of San Diego and a book published by Yale University Press that was selected for this year’s winners.

Each student honored with the award received “The Bridge at the End of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability,” by James Gustave Speth, dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale, and a graduate of Yale Law School. His book, bearing a Yale Book Award bookplate, was chosen for the “Wide-ranging interest among high school students in issues pertaining to the environment and sustainability,” said Robert Longstreth, San Diego Superior Court judge and a member of the 2012 Yale Club of San Diego Book Award committee.

“We can’t solve [today’s environmental] problems with more of the same approaches we’ve been using,” stated Author Speth. “Real solutions will require transformative change in the key features of this contemporary capitalism.”

“And today’s young people are the ones most likely to come up with those changes,” Longstreth added.

The other selected, award-winning juniors are:

Melodyanne Cheng, Torrey Pines High School; Thomas Edman, La Jolla Country Day School; Nicholas Ferreirae, San Dieguito Academy; Melody Jung, Canyon Crest Academy; Nicholas Kelly, Patrick Henry High School; Melissa Kolenovic, Point Loma High School; Micah Lyle, Santa Fe Christian; David Mrdjenovich, Mt. Carmel High School; Emily Nyguen, The Bishop’s School; Julianne Preimesberger, Cathedral Catholic High School; Xavier Redondo, St. Augustine High School; Wright Smith, Coronado High School; Brandon Solis, Chula Vista High School; Brian Thuyen, University City High School; Kenneth Xu, Scripps Ranch High School.

The Yale Club of San Diego Book Award was created to recognize outstanding high school students. The students were recommended by their high schools for academic achievement, outstanding personal character and intellectual promise.