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Nothing looks set to slow Auckland’s Shen brothers as they speed towards two of America’s most prestigious universities with dreams of launching world-changing startups.

Eric, 22, just landed one of the world’s most elite scholarships – a $90,000, two-year Fulbright Masters study award at Georgia Tech.

He’s keen to push medical tech’s boundaries – potentially helping create surgical robots or wearable sensors to aid early diagnosis and help for those with debilitating conditions.

Younger brother Ryan, 18, has scored a full ride to Harvard after placing in the top 3% of New Zealand students in 11 senior exams during his time at Mount Albert Grammar School (MAGS).

He wants to join his brother in the start-up space and is used to sprinting after goals.

He raced through advanced math studies two years ahead of most students his age, won the national schoolboys long jump title, dashed to third in the athletic carnival’s 200m sprint and co-captained NZ’s under-19 schoolboys football team.

Mount Albert Grammar student Ryan Shen accepts his Dux award for 2024's top academic student alongside brother Eric, who was the runner-up Dux four years earlier. Photo / Hagen Hopkins

“When the long ball comes over, the chase is on so you’ve got to have some speed,” he said about outpacing strikers as a defender, but also giving insight into how he hits the books.

Their success tips a hat to New Zealand’s sometimes-maligned education system.

Ryan Shen speeds along while co-captaining New Zealand's schoolboys football team on a tour to Australia, after also winning the national schools long jump and placing third in the 200m sprint. Photo / Supplied

While many top schools tout the Cambridge exam as a pathway to international universities, both Shen brothers took a solely homegrown NCEA and NZ Scholarship route.

They were lucky to have access to MAGS’ accelerated courses, with both brothers studying advanced maths two years ahead of schedule.

That allowed Ryan to finish most of his NCEA subjects early and spend his final year focused on NZ Scholarships – the exam-based awards for the nation’s top students.

He placed in the top 3% in 11 of the exams, becoming MAGS’ top student for 2024, while simultaneously touring Australia with the schoolboys football team and winning acclaim on the athletics field.

“It’s rare that schools will let you accelerate so fast and give you so much support,” he said of MAGS.

Eric was MAGs’ runner-up dux four years earlier – scoring 10 Outstanding Scholar awards for being in the top 3% – before last year graduating in biomedical engineering at the University of Auckland.

Yet the brothers say they’re not content with book smarts.

They hope to put their maths and technical skills to real-world work in business.

Eric first got the start-up bug at the University of Auckland.

He joined a research lab with a track record of “spinning out” innovative businesses, before moving into the university’s venture arm.

“I got to see a lot of local, really high-tech companies and people would come and pitch to us,” he said.

The ex-Mount Albert Grammar brothers at Eric's Fulbright scholarship ceremony. Photo / Hagen Hopkins

That inspired him to choose Georgia Institute of Technology with its practical, hands-on masters course over offers from Ivy League universities, such as Yale and Johns Hopkins, he said.

He doesn’t know exactly where it’ll lead him.

For now, he’s leaning towards a career in cutting-edge medical equipment and hopes it’s in the US – the big league of entrepreneurial spirit.

It’lllikely involve artificial intelligence (AI).

“The field that I’m in is really an emerging field,” he said about medical hardware and robotics potentially connecting to AI.

“Things like intelligence systems and artificial intelligence-connected hardware, I think it’s probably one of the biggest trends that’ll take off.”

Ryan, meanwhile, has a full scholarship to Harvard that covers his economics and engineering studies, accommodation and some expenses.

His focus is likewise on “commercialisation” of “cool” tech and research.

Jumping overseas at 18 is a big step, he said.

Mount Albert Grammar School principal Patrick Drumm. Photo / Supplied

But he’s going to be living on campus with scores of new friends, and it’s likely his flights will pass through brother Eric’s new city, given Atlanta is one of the world’s busiest transit airports.

The boys are already joking about road trips.

MAGS principal Patrick Drumm praised the brothers and his school’s teachers for supporting their journey.

The achievements come as MAGS and other schools grapple with keeping New Zealand’s national qualification system competitive internationally.

Ryan said his story showed US universities were “starting to recognise the ability of NCEA students”.

For now though, both brothers are looking forwards not backwards as they treat their chase to create the world’s next big start-up as more a sprint than a marathon.

Shen brothers’ school achievements:

• Eric served as head prefect and won Best All-Round Boy twice at MAGS; Ryan was deputy head prefect, named dux (top student), and won Best All-Round Boy for all five years.
• Both brothers received the Liddell scholarship, awarded by Kiwi Chris Liddell (former Microsoft chief financial officer and White House deputy chief of staff).
• They have a combined 21 NZ Scholarship awards for academic performance in the top 3% nationally (Eric 10, Ryan 11).
• Ryan won first place in a Mathematical Modeling Competition (top 40 globally), first place in the National Engineering Science competition and was named MAGS’ Athletics Champion.
• Ryan co-captained New Zealand’s national secondary school football team and captained MAGS’ futsal team to second place nationally. He also won the national schoolboys long jump and placed third in the 200m sprint.