Johnny Meng has been involved in the world of music since he was four years old. Beginning with the piano and progressing to the saxophone and clarinet in elementary school this gifted musician has ambitions to pursue music at Northwestern along with biomedical engineering.

What inspired this musician to choose Northwestern? Well…the short answer is that Northwestern is located next to a lake. Meng jokingly says that it was the university’s beautiful location that drew him in.

“The long answer is that I am interested in science and music. I am going there to major in biomedical engineering. They have a strong engineering program and a strong music program,” explained senior Johnny Meng.

This musician claims “The Strokes are the greatest band ever” and has his own plans to start a band.

“Something that really interests me is medical research. In college I would love to get involved with tissue engineering research or neuroscience research. I also would like to start a band. I have tried multiple times but that hasn’t been very successful. I would like to try again,” Meng said.

Meng vividly recalls his favorite class, calculus with Mr. Gourley.

“My favorite teacher is Mr. Gourley because I found him and his class really interesting. I took Calculus AB in sophomore year and I had him again for Calculus BC junior year. I really liked his teaching style and how he made difficult concepts easy to process,” Meng added.

He also enjoys physics because it is “more hands on than other classes” at North Penn.

“Right now I am taking AP Physics and it’s an interesting class because Mr. Berger does many demonstrations to show how electricity works,” Meng explained.

Both outside and inside of school Meng is involved in a variety of activities, including teaching and volunteering.

“I am vice president of Academic Decathlon, I play lead tenor in the school’s navy jazz band and I do SAT tutoring with the ADAPT club. Outside of school I am the clarinet section leader of the Philadelphia Sinfonia and I also volunteer to teach music at my Chinese school,” Meng said.

His favorite memory includes his first year teaching at the Chinese school.

“Overtime I got the hang of teaching and at the end of the semester we have a recital where everyone has to go up and play a song… Helping them enter the world of music and seeing all my students go up there and play a song well really impacted me,” Meng added.

During the summer he loves to read books and travel. This summer he read 1984 by George Orwell and recently traveled to Virginia and the Outer Banks.

To the incoming sophomores…Meng drops words of wisdom.

“I think it’s important to take risks and seize opportunities because when I came to high school I was introverted. It helps to realize that we are very young and what we do now really doesn’t matter towards our future. So it’s best to put yourself out there. Try new things and talk to new people,” Meng advised.