Alumni Spotlight

Maxwell Love’19 is a vibrant, well-rounded learner whose resume-to-date belies his youth. As a junior at Oakwood School, he recently completed a research summer internship at UCLA into the analysis and remediation of cytotoxicity of cigarette smoke in the lungs. He will submit his resulting research report to the nationally renowned Davidson Fellow Scholarship and the Regeneron Science Talent Search. Maxwell also testified to the San Jose City Council on a high schooler’s perspective of the vaping epidemic, assisting in the successful effort to pass legislation banning flavored e-cigarettes.

During the height of the pandemic, building on the 3-D courses he first took at ACDS then at ID Tech, Maxwell designed and printed child-friendly face mask extenders. He also designed and 3-D printed a novel GoPro cradle device in 2021 to assist a local Real Estate company in making time-lapse videos of ongoing construction projects.

Away from the classroom, Maxwell is a successful snowboarder and is currently ranked 19th in the nation in his age group in the boardercross and slalom events, and 23rd in giant slalom. During the last six years, he has won 12 gold medals, multiple other medals, qualified for the Nationals every year, and earned sponsorships from four companies: Academy Snowboards, Khuno Optics, Demon United, and Humanity Apparel.

Having played piano for eleven years, Maxwell took part in the San Francisco International Innovative Music Competition last October. He received a 3rd place award in the Advanced Piano category for ages 15 – 24. In addition, Maxwell has played guitar for seven years, and recently formed a rock band with friends, The Elementals, performing at local public events.

Being fluent in English and Mandarin, Maxwell gave back to his community in 2021, helping to teach classical piano to children aged 4-11 at a local Chinese school. He also assisted them with Chinese reading and writing activities and tutored them in Math and English assignments.

Maxwell says that his time at ACDS taught him to enjoy learning and credits Mrs. Johnson, his middle school science teacher, for instilling a passion for science. Field trips were memorable, and he especially enjoyed the 7^th grade trip to Catalina. His advice to current ACDS students is that “success looks different for everybody. Don’t compare yourself to other people.” To prospective families Maxwell shares that “ACDS provides a friendly environment with a strong sense of community that gave me a quality foundation to pursue academics.”

His latest endeavor? Maxwell has just joined San Jose Council Member Matt Mahan’s campaign for mayor team, where he will help with statistical analysis.