Super Kid: Archbishop Murphy grad heading to Georgia Tech

Published 9:15 pm Sunday, June 12, 2016

EVERETT – Peter Zupke, 17, recently graduated from Archbishop Murphy High School, a Catholic school south of Everett. He is the son of Karyn and Craig Zupke. Sister Paula graduated from Archbishop Murphy in 2014.

Peter Zupke was one of three valedictorians, an achievement determined by grades, and the sole salutatorian, a role that was voted on by students at Murphy, to speak at the June 3 commencement.

Question: How are you feeling about senior year?

Answer: Senior year has definitely been the busiest year of high school, but I’d also say it’s been the most rewarding. Part of the busy-ness is just tons of activities. I’ve been ASB (student government) president. I’ve done the fall play and the spring musical and I’ve had five Advanced Placement classes. The reason it’s rewarding is just the vast number of people I’ve had the chance to meet, interact with and become friends with.

Q: Why student leadership?

A: Mainly it was because people told me they thought I’d be good at it. During my junior year different people approached me … I thought I should push myself and run for this.

Q: How did you approach that responsibility?

A: Mainly it’s working a lot with the other seven people on our ASB … I can always rely on other people. Really, it’s compromising and working as a unit that gets stuff done and done well.

Q: What are your plans for after high school?

A: I will be studying computer science at Georgia Tech (the Georgia Institute of Technology). Computer science was just something I had always been interested in. I was always fascinated by technology. My junior year I took the AP computer science class and that just confirmed it was a passion of mine.

Q: Do you do any volunteering?

A: Over the summer I volunteer as a day camp counselor for Camp Fire. I’ve done that for five summers now. I was a camper there since first grade and just moved my way up.

Q: What will you miss about high school here?

A: The community of both students and teachers. Everyone really has a sense of compassion.

Q: Has there been an adult in your life who has really impacted you?

A: Mrs. (Erica) Streelman, who is the ASB adviser. Not only has she taught me a lot about leadership. She’s also a very supportive and genuine teacher. Every day after school I can go to her room and talk about whatever is on my mind. I’ve never had her as a teacher but her students respect her and enjoy her class but also have fun.

Q: Do you have plans for summer?

A: A lot of my summer is my family is moving houses … I’m looking at a couple of job opportunities. I’m applying for those right now.

Q: What are you excited about for college?

A: I’m excited about the independence and getting the chance to join a new community that’s completely different and to have the skills I’ve gained here to smoothly transfer myself into the new community.

Q: What do you like to do for fun?

A: I watch a fair amount of TV. I like movies. I definitely like the whole entertainment industry. That’s how I got into computer science. I wanted to be an animator for Pixar. I took an animation class one summer at DigiPen (Institute of Technology in Redmond) in middle school. I found myself more interested in the computer science and programming part of it than the artistic side.

Q: So what’s your favorite movie and book?

A: Definitely “Up” by Pixar. For book, I just read “Hamilton,” the musical that is on Broadway now, it was a book written telling the story of its creation. It had the lyrics and the author annotated all the lyrics.

Q: Anything else you want people to know about you?

A: One thing I’ve enjoyed doing at Murphy is writing morning prayers. We have morning prayers every day. I’m not a very religious person. I view them as morning reflections. I use those mornings to reflect on the issues in my life and I talk about those over the intercom. It’s been really rewarding to have other students come up and say it spoke to them.

Q: What has driven you to accomplish so much?

A: I strive to be better, which can be hard with self-image issues, but it’s pushed me to try new things and work my hardest.

Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.