What am I going to wear to the President’s State of the Union address?

That was the first thought that crossed the mind of Gabriela Farfan ’13 when she received the call from the White House on Jan 21. On the request of First Lady Michelle Obama, Farfan was asked to attend President Obama’s first State of the Union address the following Wednesday.

Placing 10th of 1,600 competitors in the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search last year, Farfan was invited to be one of the First Lady’s guests of honor to underscore the President’s“commitment to science, technology, engineering and mathematics education (STEM),” according to The White House blog.

“They asked me, ‘Do you want to sit with the First Lady in her booth?'” Farfan said, recalling the phone call.

Pausing in awe, it didn’t take long for her response: “Yes.”

The White House selected Farfan and three other young women to recognize their scientific contributions and leadership potential.

“The young women were singled out for their early achievements and their place among the nation’s next generation of leaders,” said Wendy Hawkins, executive director of the Intel Foundation, in an e-mail to The Daily.

Farfan had been researching the relationship between light and gem stone colors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison while still in high school over two years ago. What she found—that certain gemstones appear to change color when viewed from different angles—could break new ground in nanotechnology and materials science.

“What struck me most particularly about Gabriela’s work was the length of time she had pursued her passion, and the leap she had made from loving rocks–to truly innovative work in the underlying materials science,” Hawkins said.

Upon arriving in Washington, D.C., Farfan was given a private tour of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, met with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and conducted a series of live television interviews. Yet she was most surprised by the motorcade that greeted her to escort her to the White House.

“At first I didn’t realize what was going on,” Farfan said. “I saw all of these police cars and I thought, there must have been an accident. Then I realized, no, the police cars are following us.”

Upon walking into the House of Representatives Chamber, Farfan was excited to see famous politicians filing into their seats. Security guards motioned her into the room.

“I walked through the doors, and it was freezing cold inside,” Farfan said. “It turns out that the lights are so hot and there are so many people packed into the room that they don’t want the President to start sweating.”

On her trip, Farfan was also asked to write on the official White House blog, in which she commented on her feelings just after the address: “I am still trying to calm down from the adrenaline rush of tonight’s events. I feel deeply honored to have been invited to sit with the First Lady in her box at the State of the Union Address.”

The freshman sat on the stairs of Michelle Obama’s box, seated only a few rows away from the First Lady. Despite Farfan’s initial concerns about her outfit choice, when the camera panned across the First Lady’s booth during the address, there was Farfan, dressed in a sharp, newly purchased business suit.

Following the speech, she also had the honor of meeting Michelle Obama and the President himself.

“I went to shake [the First Lady’s] hand, and she gave me a hug,” Farfan said. “She was very, very sweet. You felt like you were with a neighbor.”

She also shook hands with the President and congratulated him on his speech.

“I was there to represent science and math and education, and I thought he touched on that quite a bit,” she said.

Yet despite the president’s emphasis on math and science in his address, Farfan expressed concern on the cultural weight given to the subjects in today’s generation.

“I think that a lot of people are scared of science and math, and that’s something we need to dispel,” she said. “I think the President really wants us to excel in science so that we can build future technologies and clean fuels for future generations. We aren’t in a good spot right now.”

Farfan returned to Stanford the next day to hit the science books and catch up on sleep. She said she planned to continue her geology research at Stanford, and eventually attend graduate school in geology.

“I would like to continue doing mineralogical research—I’m totally into minerals,” Farfan beamed.