Francis Lewis High School graduate joins elite ranks of Milken Scholars

Recent Francis Lewis High School graduate Marcellino Melika was named as one of the five recipients of the $10,000 2025 New York City Milken Scholars Award, earning the cash prize for his accomplishments in academics, community service, leadership and perserverance.

As a Milken Scholar, Melika will also receive lifelong access to college advising, career counseling, internship assistance, community service opportunities and a fund to help with graduate school applications, unpaid internships, study abroad programs and other costs associated with the pursuit of a career.

Established in 1989 by Mike and Lori Milken, the Milken Scholarship Program is a joint initiative between the Milken Institute, a non-profit primarily focused on accelerating measurable progress on the path to a meaningful life, and the Milken Family Foundation, which works to find and advance great strategies for promoting education in the United States and around the world. High school seniors in New York City, as well as in Washington D.C. and Los Angeles County are chosen each year for this program.

There have been nearly 600 Milken Scholars named over the years. Some notable past recipients include Inaugural Poet Amanda Gorman, Egypt Binational Fulbright Commission Board Treasurer and Cairo U.S. Embassy Minister-Counselor for Public Diplomacy Ruben Harutunian, Children’s National Hospital Chief of Emergency Medicine Dr. Joelle Simpson and award-winning entrepreneur Emanuel Yekutiel.

Melika embraces the opportunities he gets to engage with his studies. He has been named a Greenman Leadership Scholar four times, in addition to being named a USC Bovard Scholar, an AP Scholar with Distinction, a Yale Young Global Scholar, a Horatio Alger New York State Scholar and a National Merit Scholar.

He is already a published researcher and has won a national science award. Additionally, he has interned at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Weill Cornell Medicine and HYPOTHEkids.

Some of the additional work he has performed related to his research includes work with York College. Princia and Francis Lewis High School’s research program. Through these efforts, Melika has been able to expand his research across the topics of bioinformatics, light pollution, plant bioacoustics and neurodegenerative disease. He served as a lead researcher in his school’s research program, the biology captain on the school’s Science Olympiad Team and helped others as a STEM peer tutor.

Journalism is another strength of Melika’s, as reflected in his success in getting his research published. His talent in this field led him to be named a panelist at SXSW EDU in 2024. He was also a reporter for WNYC Radio Rookies, which provides kids and young adults with the tools and training needed to tell stories about themselves and their communities. Additionally, Melika served as a podcast production intern for Chalkbeat NY and The Bell.

In 2023, Melika took part in a fully funded environmental sustainability volunteer service trip to Costa Rica. There, he helped create a forest path that would be accessible for differently abled people.

At Francis Lewis High School in Fresh Meadows, Melika was a cellist and the treasurer for the school’s string orchestra. He was also the head of the eSports club there, having organized livestreams and competitions for a team there that has accomplished national success.

Melika will be a first-generation college student when he begins his first semester at MIT in the fall. A QuestBridge Match there, he will be studying electrical engineering and computing. He hopes to pursue a career as a physician-scientist or a biomedical or software engineer.