Hobbies
Biking, fishing, playing guitar and piano, singing, reading, and making movies.

Clubs
President of the Platteville Youth Commission; Editorial Board Member of the Wisconsin Youth Press; Treasurer of the Democratic Party of Grant County; Founder and President of the Grant County Youth Democrats; Founder of “Kids Against Global Warming”; Johns Hopkins Study of Exceptional Talent (SET) member; 4H member.

Experience
National Physics Bowl Division I First Place Winner 2006; Intel International Science Engineering Fair (ISEF) Finalist 2007; Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS) National Presenter and Regional First Place Winner 2007; National Chemistry Olympiad Finalist 2006; National German Exam Winner 2007; Badger State Science Fair First Place Winner 2007; Wisconsin State Piano and Vocal Solo Exemplary Honors Award 2006.

Biography
As I write this, I’m sitting on my front porch, watching a great blue heron stab its beak into the calm water of my pond, trying to spear a bluegill. Across the pond, our heifers and sheep graze peacefully, while behind them, the still bare tama soil awaits the corn that will be planted later this spring. Peering past our rolling cropland, I can see my nearest neighbor’s silo a mile down the road. My 400 acre farm lies on the edge of Belmont, population 871, in picturesque Southwest Wisconsin. You’ve probably never heard of Belmont, but you may have tasted its cheese, “President Brie”, which is distributed nationwide.

As far back as I can remember I’ve loved science, and living on a farm has been like owning a huge laboratory. It’s also taught me first hand about environmental problems like soil erosion, pollution, and drought. Last year I invented a renewably generated hydrogen storage device for farmhouse heating and crop drying; I have a patent pending. Two years ago, my dad and I carried out a soil conservation program, and now we’re planning to build an experimental windmill, though some of our neighbors (not the Amish ones) fear that “electromagnetic rays” from the windmills will hurt their cows. But even though we heat and cool our house geothermally and recycle most of what we use, we’re not entirely “back-to-nature” types – we have a TV (although we hardly watch it) and I enjoy a wholesome dose of junk food.

In 7th grade, I decided to try homeschooling because regular school wasn’t challenging enough. Homeschooling was like entering a brightly lit house on a dark night. I could finally learn at my own pace and had time to delve as deeply as I cared into my subjects. I’m 16 now and I’ve decided to stick with homeschooling through high school. I learn through a combination of self-teaching, taking courses at the University of Wisconsin Platteville, just five miles away, and taking on-line courses through Stanford’s Education Program for Gifted Youth. I’ve also had an exciting time researching the thermodynamic solubility of carbon nanotubes, with the extraordinary support of Dr. Hamilton at the University of Wisconsin Platteville. My 14 year old brother, Peter, and my 12 year old sister, Caroline, are also homeschooled. Peter is a language genius: he has taught himself Icelandic in less than a year, has so far translated 20 Icelandic children’s books, and has, as a result, become somewhat famous in Iceland. My sister is more like me, only better at math.

Besides science, I love politics. Since I was 12, I’ve helped in election campaigns. At 13, I became the local Ward Leader of the Kerry campaign; now I’m an intern at the state capitol for Phil Garthwaite, our state assemblyman. In the future, I’d like to combine my love of science and politics to work on solving some of the grave problems faced by our species, especially global warming.