NYHS senior Gabbay named a U.S. Presidential Scholars candidate

Published 1:30 pm Thursday, March 5, 2026

Northwest Yeshiva High School (NYHS) senior Elizabeth Gabbay is proud and honored to be named one of the 2026 U.S. Presidential Scholars candidates by the U.S. Department of Education.

The stellar student at the Jewish day school on Mercer Island received the notification on Feb. 24, about five months after learning that she was part of the 2026 National Merit Scholarship semifinalists group by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

“It’s nice to see that there are these recognition programs for performing well. I’m excited for the next steps to see if I move further in the program,” Gabbay said. “I’m really happy to represent my school in this way.”

Gabbay, 18, who has been a student at NYHS since her freshman year, is one of nine Jewish day school students throughout the country — the other eight reside on the east coast — to be recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as candidates. According to the department’s site, approximately 4,000 general program candidates are identified mostly based on SAT and ACT scores.

“Each year, up to 161 students are named as Presidential Scholars, one of the nation’s highest honors for high school students,” the site noted, adding that the program — which was established in 1964 — recognizes and honors some of the nation’s most distinguished graduating high school seniors.

In a previous Reporter article, NYHS said that Gabbay was recognized in 2024 as the NYHS Master Scholar in Science while excelling in the most rigorous courses of both Judaic and general studies.

The Seattle resident, who is one of eight seniors at NYHS, enrolled at the school because her parents wanted her to receive a strong Jewish education and she’s enjoyed forming bonds with her teachers and fellow students along the way.

“The community is really close and caring and they celebrate each other, and it really feels like a family,” Gabbay said.

After graduating from NYHS, Gabbay plans to attend college next year with hopes to major in math or some kind of quantitative science. She’s especially interested in studying mathematical descriptions of ecology and of nature.

Gabbay was drawn to math as a child and loves the way it describes the world.

“I also love what I see in the world, which are all of these beautiful natural features. It’s cool that there’s a way to combine the two and a way to think about nature in terms of this conceptual, reasoning, logic-based language,” she said.

On the extracurricular activities front at NYHS, Gabbay helped found the Mycology Club that studies fungi; she was part of the Science Bowl team; and she participates in the Dungeons & Dragons Club. She’s also a violinist and was a research intern over the summer with the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle.

The Reporter asked Gabbay a series of questions to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse into her life:

What’s your favorite movie of all time?

Well, one of my favorites is “The Sting.” It’s from the ’70s. It’s with Robert Redford and Paul Newman. It’s really funny and sort of a complicated, surprising plot.

What’s the best piece of advice that you’ve ever been given?

The one that comes to mind right now is from my research mentor over at the Institute for Systems Biology (Dr. Jacob Valenzuela). One of the ones that really stuck with me was that good propagates good. He was giving some of his time to really train us and nurture us and prepare us to be leaders. And that’s something that we should do in our future. So always once you have a skill, you should always try to spread it around and educate the people around you. Be curious and ask questions and dig deeper into things, and that’s where discoveries are made.

What advice would you give a new student beginning their high school journey?

I’d say try to be curious and try to do a bunch of things that maybe you wouldn’t immediately see yourself doing based on what you’ve done in the past. For me, my path has changed based off of trying an experience that I didn’t really know much about. So just don’t hold yourself back and don’t try to fit yourself into any sort of mold. Just try things that sound interesting or that maybe you think are going to push yourself, and let yourself reflect on that and see what happens next.

If you could go to dinner with one person, who would that be?

I think Jane Austen, the author. She’s a favorite of mine and she also has such a quick wit and she makes such surprising, incisive observations about society. She’s also really funny. I think it would be a great conversation.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Let’s see, 10 years, that’s six years after college. My plan as of now is to pursue a PhD. So either I’ll be finished or I’ll be almost finished. And after that, I hope to start working in scientific research, academic research.