Q. In what grade are you currently enrolled?

A. I’m currently in 12th grade at Emmaus High School.

Q. Please provide the first names of your family members: parents, siblings and pets.

A. My dad’s name is Frank, my mom’s name is Marian and my brother’s name is Mark.

Q. What is your favorite subject? Why?

A. My favorite subject is computer science because it is very logical and all of the work is like a puzzle I need to solve. It just makes sense to me and I enjoy working through it.

Q. Have you received any special awards or recognition?

A. I received special recognition for my perfect ACT score for the test I took in April of 2019. I’ve been on principal’s honor roll every quarter since the beginning of high school. I received an award for “Excellence in Computer Science” sophomore year and the Computer Science - 100, AP Award last year. I also received a perfect score at the regional PJAS competition last year. In September of this year, I was named as a National Merit Scholar Semifinalist.

Q. Are you involved in any extracurricular activities? How has COVID-19 impacted these activities?

A. My biggest extracurricular activity is the robotics team. This year the total number of people able to participate on the team has been significantly lower than usual and those who have been able to participate have had far less ability to do so. Building our annual robot for the FIRST Tech Challenge requires a lot of work from a lot of people, so this year has been very difficult. We have also been very limited by how often we’ve been allowed in school. For the most part, we have only been allowed in school when hybrid students have been allowed in, so there has been a lot of starting and stopping. We can work outside of school, but work slows down a lot when you don’t have at least one other person there. Because the season was delayed two months, we are still on track to compete this year, but it has put some significant strain on the team.

I am also participating in winter and spring track this year. Track has been affected by COVID-19 as well but has been doing better under the circumstances because it does not always require being in person. Winter track started in December and was virtual for the majority of the month. After the New Year, we have been having regular in-person practices with the team split across two practice times. The plan for the spring season is still in flux, but I’m confident they’ll be able to pull a season together for us.

My last big extracurricular is science fair. Of the three of them, science fair has been affected least by the pandemic. Obviously, the actual fair had to be converted to a virtual format, but the fair itself is only a small part of the process. The vast majority of my time working on the science fair is spent on my own anyway, so it wasn’t a huge change. This year, I am working on a computer science project titled “Streamlining Scheduling with Simulated Annealing.” For this project, I used simulated annealing to make an algorithm that will automatically generate shift schedules for employees working at retail stores.

Q. What do you consider your biggest challenge to date?

A. Sophomore year, for the science fair, I tried to teach myself a new programming language to make an app for my project. I put dozens of hours of work into the app, but, about a month out from the fair, I realized I wouldn’t finish in time. I’ve always been the type of person who just works through their problems, and, for a long time, I thought that if I just kept working at something, it would work out in the end. My biggest challenge to date was accepting the fact that, despite putting in all the time and effort you could, sometimes it just can’t be done.

Q. What is your next goal after high school?

A. After high school, I plan to go to college and get a degree in computer science. It is my favorite subject and favorite thing to work on and I hope I can make a career out of it.

Q. Whom do you admire? Why?

A. I admire my dad because he has gone through a lot but still found a way to persevere through it. He’s made some mistakes, but he works really hard to make sure it works out for our family in the end. I hope that I can find that same drive when I get older to keep going when the going gets tough.

Q. For what would you like to be remembered?

A. A lot of people know me as the smart kid, but I hope they remember me for my willingness to share that. I’ve always done my best to help out others when they were having trouble in classes I was doing well and I would like people to remember that more than just being “smart.”

Q. Do you have any advice for your peers?

A. My best advice for others is to try in everything you do. Whether it’s school, sports or clubs, if you’re going to spend time on something, you should always try to do your best. If it’s worth your time, it’s worth your best. If it’s not worth your best, it’s not worth your time.