Future Leaders Winner addressing society's biggest challenges
Throughout the school year, CBS Colorado, along with Chevron and Colorado School of Mines, recognizes high school students who excel in science, technology, engineering, and math or STEM. The Future Leaders Award includes $1,000 and a profile on CBS News Colorado.
Nicholas Kruus is the latest Futures Leaders winner. Kruus is a senior at STEM School Highlands Ranch. He maintains a 4.7 GPA, got a score of 1580 on the SAT, and scored 5 out of 5 on all five Advanced Placement (AP) tests. Beyond his school work, he's doing critical thinking about some of society's biggest issues.
In the last few years, Kruus has written or contributed to nearly a dozen research papers on a wide variety of topics.
"I think my work currently really kind of focuses on the intersection of philosophy, specifically ethics, economics and politics," he explained.
He's researched and written on topics like the gender gap in STEM, student mental health and stigma, and education in low-income countries. Most recently, he's been working on a report for the World Bank designed to improve forecasts of greenhouse gases.
"The reason that this is very important and very motivating for me is that the recommendations that we're making should provide governments with more useful information to allow them to make their sustainability policies more effective," Kruus said.
Kruus was in sixth grade when the shooting happened at STEM School Highlands Ranch. The next year COVID swept across the country. His formal learning was disrupted for several years.
"I really struggled to learn during the pandemic," he recalled.
"What started you on the journey of writing the research papers?" First Alert Meteorologist Dave Aguilera asked Kruus.
"I was at a point in my life where I felt like I didn't have much meaning or fulfillment, and so I was quite, feeling really down because of that," he replied. "That's kind of when I started pursuing research because I saw this as a way that I could help contribute to society."
He also contributed to the Yale Young Global Scholars program at Yale University.
"This was really sort of an exciting opportunity to really sort of immerse myself in a group of people who are focused on trying to solve some of humanity's largest challenges," he said of the program.
Kruus also did a fellowship with Non-Trivial, an online research program.
"The fellowship aims to help high schoolers to have a positive social impact with a project, as well as provide them with mentorship and a network of people who have this shared goal," he said.
Kruus is not afraid of a challenge or a deep dive into the internet. He worked with the Global Priorities Institute at Oxford University and helped to summarize some of the Institute's more technical papers for a general audience.
"I came to realize that I think that what makes life meaningful and what gives me purpose is trying to help others," Kruus told CBS News Colorado.
Kruus will continue his research efforts in college, but he's not sure where he's going to go yet. He's also not exactly clear how he'll pursue his interests in the future, but he will definitely continue to think critically about society's most pressing problems.
LINK: Nominate a Future Leaders Candidate
CBS Colorado is accepting nominations for its Future Leaders Award through April 18, 2025.