John Marshall High School Senior Zara Zervos Earns Double Nominations for National Awards
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GLEN DALE -- Zara Zervos has been a standout student and athlete throughout her time at John Marshall High School, and her efforts have earned her recognition both for academics and for her technical aptitude.
Zervos is one of 14 students in the country and the only student in West Virginia to be chosen as a nominee for U.S. Presidential Scholar and U.S. Presidential Scholar in Career & Technical Education. She has a GPA of 4.57 and scored a 1490 on her SAT, placing her in the 99th percentile. Presidential Scholar nominees can be chosen based on three courses: SAT performance, CTE aptitude, or artistic talent.
Zervos also showed strong proficiency with several components of the school's CTE program, including the Autodesk Inventor, robotC and Autodesk Revit programs. She also completed Carnegie STEM Camp in their mobile Fab Lab to work with tinkering and creative design. Her skill in the CTE field led to her volunteering with elementary students to assist in their Project Lead the Way and CTE coursework.
"The technical and career field portion was just added in 2015, so being one of the first group of people to win that, as well as being one of only 14 to win both, really made me proud of the CTE that I've had at John Marshall is on that scale," Zervos said Wednesday.
"It makes me really proud to represent Marshall County," she continued. "Throughout my schooling, they've done so much for me, offering unique classes for me to take to really push me in school; my teachers giving me so much help when it comes to preparing for the ACT, the SAT, all my AP classes, and John Marshall giving me the ability to take all my honors and AP classes. It really just feels like John Marshall set me up for such a good future, and really gave me a good education while I was here."
Looking forward, Zervos hasn't pinned down her college plans, but hopes to one day work alongside NASA or SpaceX to find some way to get to the moon.
Alongside her academic achievements, Zervos has been a familiar face in numerous sports teams and clubs, including soccer, cross country, swimming and track, as well as being the president for the Youth Leadership Association.
"I've been doing it since freshman year, so it's something I've gotten used to," she said of her full extracurricular slate, "and it's something that I found I'm able to do so easily, to balance between sports and clubs.
"I still have so much time on weekends and weeknights to spend with family and friends," she added. "Those people really helped me not to get overwhelmed with it all and just enjoy high school."
Zervos lauded her parents, Ted and Shawna, who have tirelessly supported her.
Gavin Hartle, a math a Project Lead the Way teacher, met Zervos when she was an eighth grader when she came to shadow one of JM's engineering students, and said he could immediately see her potential.
"We were working on a project that had maybe been two weeks in, and there were ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th graders, and Zara wasn't content just to sit and watch the project," Hartle said. "She jumped right in, giving ideas, steering and leading the conversation."
"That's something that has always stood out to me about her; not only is she incredibly gifted and hard-working, but she's an actual leader among other students. ... It made it a no-brainer that she should be nominated for this award."
Hartle nominated Zervos for the accolades, which were then passed on to Clayton Burch, state superintendent of schools.
Approximately 800 students will qualify as semifinalists for one of the nation's highest honors for students. Those names will be disclosed the week of April 12.
The next step is for the Commission of Presidential Scholars to review the applications of all semifinalists based on the same criteria used by the review committee. The Commission will select up to 161 U.S. Presidential Scholars and announce the winners the week of May 3.