Seniors Chelsea Zhu and Jack Vogel were recently featured in Bethesda Magazine’s 2026 Extraordinary Teens. 

Zhu, the second Maryland Youth Poet Laureate, has performed her poetry at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in DC which garnered over a million visitors.

“Chelsea is amazing. I mean, she’s one of those students that is really going to shine almost no matter what circumstances. She’s some of the best of what RM sends out into the world,” English teacher Jeremy Koenig said.

The first time Zhu wrote a poem was when she was in Elementary school, she was given an English assignment to create a Haiku, a traditional Japanese poem with a distinct characteristic: three lines, with the lines following a 5-7-5 syllable pattern.

Zhu quickly felt a connection to the medium. “The school assignment was how I was introduced to poetry, and slowly throughout the process it kind of felt like poetry chose me,” Zhu said.

When she tried explaining why she became interested in poetry, she simply said, “I started to gravitate towards writing because it’s very accessible. Anyone can write with just knowing the language.”

In the ensuing 11 years, Zhu has continued to develop her craft. Currently, she’s written a lot about climate change and social justice. “I think it’s good to place attention on how we take a lot of things in our life for granted. It is precisely because those are topics we don’t really pay attention to that we have to take extra care of them,” Zhu said.

She is also interested in the intersection between technology and art. “Technology is something I like exploring on how I can continue to use creativity or originality in my poetic practice because in this day and age, we’re surrounded by devices,” Zhu said. “It’s all connected.”

Zhu credits the people around her for shaping the way she thinks about, responds to and engages with the world.  “I’d say I’ve had so many life-changing and inspiring conversations here at RM with teachers and peers,” Zhu said.

Zhu says the biggest obstacle she had to overcome is something she describes as “being in touch with her inner voice.” The flow state, she says, is a state of mind that writers reach when they are truly in touch with their “inner voices.” Once there, she says the task of writing feels easier and more comfortable. This process was something that was new for her.

Something that helped was when she realized that poetry and art have no expectations, rules or standards.  “We have so many societal standards and pressures that we have to deal with in family, school or at work,” she said. “When there’s so much going on, why not let art or poetry be the thing that allows you to do whatever you want?”

Senior Jack Vogel, who was featured alongside Zhu, founded his own landscaping business with a friend when he was just a junior, and he’s since earned thousands in profits. But his true passion is aviation. Last summer, he participated in a summer program with the airforce, where he was flown out to California to participate in a training program.

Vogel credits his dad for sparking his interest in planes. During his childhood, the two would often build model airplanes together. “He was a guy who liked to build stuff,
so he taught me those things and it eventually led to me wanting to become a pilot,” he said. “He definitely taught me to be strong and have a good worth ethic. It was hard, but I learned what it takes to succeed.”

Vogel’s dad had a disease called muscular dystrophy, a disease that affects roughly 1 in 5000 newborn boys. Due to the disease, his dad’s muscles decayed as he aged, which negatively affected his major organs like his heart and lungs.

Vogel says his dad’s story is a major source of inspiration. “Seeing somebody like that, I remember thinking, ‘Wow, that guy is doing so good… What’s to say that I can’t do good?’” Vogel said.

Wrestling and Juijitsu are another interest of Vogel’s, and when he first started out, he struggled a lot with anxiety.  As an underclassmen, Jack would get so nervous before games to the point of throwing up. “I just hated the fear of losing in front of people,” Vogel said.

But eventually, as he grew older, he overcame his nerves, which transformed his sports into confidence boosters. “It changed a lot on how I think and act to this day,” he said.

For Vogel, another major challenge was focusing on and prioritizing the more meaningful things in his life. To improve his time management,  Vogel deleted his social media accounts on Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. Vogel says that even though “it sucked,” to him it was worth finding a better balance.

Being able to intensely concentrate on a task is crucial to aviation, a job where unexpected problems will invariably arise. There might be unexpected turbulence, a slight issue with the rudder or wing, or perhaps even a fallen door. “You gotta be focused. You got a bunch of people whose lives depend on you. That’s what’s important. Of course you gotta think ahead about the future, but you also gotta stay in the present. Focus on what you have to do,” Vogel said.