Holmdel High School junior Boris Kizenko’s meteoric rise to young conservative stardom started with a radio interview on New Jersey 101.5 FM in January, when he told host Bill Spadea that he had been denied membership in the National Honor Society because he supported President Donald Trump.

Kizenko said that wearing a “Make Holmdel Great Again” t-shirt during his campaign for junior class president and posting the Trumpism, “If you’re going to think, think big,” on a school Instagram account were the examples of the supposed “character flaw” that guardians of Honor Society’s local chapter held against him.

Holmdel Superintendent of Schools Robert McGarry and a spokesman for the Virginia-based National Honor Society insisted that political belief is not a criteria for society membership, though they have avoided discussing specifics of Kizenko’s case, and McGarry declined to be interviewed for this article.

Meanwhile, Kizenko’s appearances on Fox News segments, with young Republican podcasters, at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last month in Maryland, and other right-leaning venues have propelled the teen into the upper echelon of young American conservatism.

And Kizenko, who moved to Monmouth County from northern California two years ago, is already envisioning a run for president in 2040, after he turns the minimum age of 35.

Meanwhile, he made his first trip to the White House on Thursday, when Trump signed an executive order that he said will protect free speech on college campuses, following complaints from mainly conservative students that their views have been censored or marginalized by classmates or faculty.

Kizenko, a rower, hopes to attend Harvard, Princeton, Georgetown or another collegiate crewing powerhouse, and possibly, though not necessarily, law school. His political role model, after all, was a real estate developer and reality television star, not a lawyer.

Holmdel High School Junior Boris Kizenko. posted this photo on his Facebook page, showing him at the 2019 Conservative Police Action Conference, or CPAC, in February. (Facebook.)

The busy teen spoke to NJ Advance Media following his White House visit.

Did you meet the president and what was your impression of him?

BORIS: We didn’t really get a lot of chances to interact with the president individually, it was more of just some students were invited to hear the president’s remarks on higher education. I believe I was the only high school student there, so it was an honor to represent high school conservatives at this event. And I was talking about this on Fox yesterday. We’re doing a great job on college campuses. We need to extend that to the high schools and middle schools. And I feel comfortable saying that because I know we have a president that’s going to fight for us next.

What was your impression of the president? What was he like?

BORIS: He was saying some pretty important things that I don’t think previous administrations have focused on, you know? I was surprised that he even has to make a mandate for free speech on college campuses, I mean, this is one of our constitutional rights. And the fact that the president has to mandate this and threaten colleges’ funding has shown how far our country has strayed away from our original values and why we need to get back to that.

Okay. But on a more personal or human level, here’s the most powerful man on earth, he’s somebody you’ve admired and you finally getting a close look at him. What was that like?

BORIS: Well, he really resonates with a lot of the people there. He has business experience coming in, and people know when he comes into the room, he’s the president of the United States. And people understand the backlash that he had, and all the things that he’s done to become the president. And all the students in the room had similar things, so when he went into the room there was that instant sense of rapport. I felt like I was right at home.

Was it fun? Was it a thrill?

BORIS: It’s hard to describe. First of all, let me tell you, we were waiting in the rain for a little while — the Washington bureaucracy’s a little inefficient; we’re working on that. So then we went through security, they have nice Marine gentlemen in uniform saying ‘We’re delighted to have you, sir. Thank you very much for coming. Please come this way.’ There’s a great Marine Corps band playing, a lot of important people. It’s easy to inflate your ego when you’re in that kind of environment. But you’ve got to remember the mission here, why we’re here, what our mission is, what the president’s mission is. I would actually say at the end of it, it was a humbling experience realizing how many other students have had other issues with free speech on campus like I have, and the severity of this problem.

What’s it like to be a rising star of the young conservative movement?

BORIS: I’ve realized this the past couple of days when I’ve been getting some backlash after Fox, it makes you realize that the people who are going to be against you, that they don’t have great intentions and when you come out and you stand up for principals there’s always going to be people who want to take you down, right? And what I say to other young conservatives out there is that, this is our fight, right? We are the ones that have to fight socialism. We have to fight today for free speech inside the classroom, outside the classroom. You have to campaign, you have to be active today, so that when you can vote tomorrow, you’ll have an America you can recognize.

Speaking of tomorrow, or a couple of tomorrows, is it really your goal to run for president in 2040? Is that really an ambition of yours?

BORIS: That’s very serious. It’s a goal of mine because I’ve seen what’s been happening to this country from socialism, my family fleeing from socialism, hearing the stories of what socialism has done to our family, in the Gulag, in the concentration camps. Believing that, I don’t want any of that to happen here.

What was your family’s experience with the Gulag, the former Soviet Union’s network of forced labor camps?

BORIS: I’m second generation, so, my (Russian) grandparents were born in the Soviet Union and they fought against the communists’ coming in, and you know, they were sent to work in Soviet mining camps. And they were split up. And (the Soviets) didn’t care about your health and well-being in these camps, so a few of them, a number of them died of scarlet fever, and then they just tried to come to the United States. Those stories, those emotions, carry over the generations, and those emotions are hitting me now. Those emotions are hitting America now, with other students that also have grandparents and parents that lived in the Soviet Union.

Boris Kizenko and Leadership Institute founder Morton Blackwell inside the White House on March 21, during a free speech conference. Kizenko said he will serve as an intern at the institute this summer. (Photo courtesy of Boris Kizenko)

What are your immediate plans?

BORIS: The Trump campaign’s definitely an option. (But) I will be interning with the Leadership Institute, I think it’s a great opportunity. They’re doing some great work over there, and I would be honored to go out and work with them.

You’ve said that Holmdel school administrators and teachers are more liberal than the students, and you believe your rejection by the honor society is one example of how that divide manifests itself. Are there any other examples?

BORIS: Well, these things don’t come out of nowhere, right? Things don’t really happen randomly. There’s kind of a buildup of events, an evolution, when things like this happen. In English class, my teacher had said things like, the Vietnam War was a genocide. I’ve hear other things: students, if they feel it’s necessary, they should burn the flag in protest. So you hear those kinds of things and then another example — this has not happened to me, this happened to another student which I shall not name — a couple of years ago, the choir teacher told them, and the teacher has since been fired, that students on Trump’s inauguration, or when Trump got elected, they should wear black for the death of America.

So, you hear those kinds of things in high school and then the issue with the National Honor Society is like, Oh, well, we have this administration that already has pre-conceived biases. And I think of Holmdel High School as a school with good rankings, it’s in a great town, you know, a conservative town, and then you have that it’s not the same with the school administration.

How does that make you feel when teachers are overtly political of their beliefs clash with yours. Is that hurtful or troubling, or does it get in the way with your learning?

BORIS: I mean, it’s not really about how I feel. I sympathize with other students that have these problems and students that have told me the same thing after I went on Fox the first time. A lot of people from around the country told me similar stories. And a lot of people don’t have the opportunity to speak up like I do. So, I’m fine with going out there and speaking up and representing these students because someone needs to say something. The president has given us this opportunity at the White House, and it made me realize we have to speak up for this. This is the time.

Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.com’s newsletters.