Shorecrest Valedictorian gets scholar nod from Obama
Source/Author: MARK WOLFENBARGER, Tribune staff
May 18, 2015
Jackson Willis is not your average 18-year-old.
He has rare intelligence, but remains humble and polite. He would rather take his 13-year-old brother, Walker, to see “Avengers: Age of Ultron” on a Friday night than spend it partying with friends. He doesn’t even have a Facebook profile.
And on May 4, he became Shorecrest Preparatory School’s first U.S. Presidential Scholar.
More than 4,300 high school seniors were considered for the annual award based on their SAT and ACT exam scores, and nominations by Chief State School Officers and the National YoungArts Foundation. Nationwide, 141 students earned the honor, with five from Florida. Willis is the only presidential scholar from the Tampa Bay area this year.
President Obama appointed the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, which awards one male and one female student from each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and among U.S. families living abroad. Fifteen additional winners are chosen at large, and 20 more awards go to U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts.
An award ceremony will take place June 21 in Washington.
Willis, who was born in St. Petersburg, received a perfect 1600 on the SAT and the highest possible score — 36 — on the ACT. (The Presidential Scholarship doesn’t take into account the writing portion of the SAT.) He also is Shorecrest’s 2015 Valedictorian.
He was in European history class when a school secretary broke the news to him.
“I was totally shocked; I was absolutely amazed,” he said. “I felt very honored to be selected.”
But David Field, whom Willis said is his most influential teacher, was not.
“Jackson is an unusually outstanding young man in many areas,” said Field, who teaches eighth- through 12th-grade math.
In fact, Willis is somewhat of a Renaissance man.
He began playing piano when he was 5 and likes “a little of everything,” though his favorite composer is George Gershwin.
Like his father, Bob, Willis is an Eagle Scout. He said Walker soon will be one, too.
Willis has worked with the Sustany Foundation, a Tampa-based nonprofit organization, on developing an international sea turtle treaty. If successful, Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport will host the treaty, which would bind 15 countries in the Americas to sea turtle conservation.
As an intern to the director of downtown St. Petersburg’s Salvador Dalí Museum, Willis made a timeline of Dalí’s life. He said that it will hang in the museum’s lobby.
“Everything he does, he does extremely well,” Field said.
He is part of a family legacy at Shorecrest. Willis’ father, a St. Petersburg lawyer, is an alumnus; his mother, Sally, is a former teacher; and Walker is an eighth-grader at the school in northeast St. Petersburg.
Walker was one of two Shorecrest students to win “Best in Fair” at this year’s Pinellas County Science Fair. And on Wednesday he won the Top Achievement award for middle school science at the Mayor’s Youth Showcase of Achievement.
Field said the family’s closeness and communication have played a large part in Jackson Willis’ success.
Next month, Willis and Field both will say goodbye to Shorecrest. Willis will graduate and head to Yale University, while Field retires to his home in Hayesville, N.C., after 43 years of teaching — 35 of which he spent at Shorecrest.
For Willis, the presidential scholar award is the culmination of his efforts.
“I think, for me, it’s a great reminder of the fantastic opportunities I’ve had,” Willis said. “I’ve had amazing teachers, such as Mr. Field, and fantastic peers. And I think it reminds me that all those great influences and things I’ve gotten to do over the years, and ways I’ve been able to contribute, really do pay off.”
So how did Willis celebrate the occasion? The same way he and Walker toast all of their accomplishments — with a couple of root beer floats.
