This story is part of The Daily Herald’s annual look at promising local high school graduates.
SNOHOMISH — Above and beyond. That’s an apt account of Mason Meyer’s academic pursuits at Glacier Peak High School. He is headed to Harvard University with an astonishing list of achievements and a zeal for greater challenge.
“This kid is going after learning just for learning,” said Jim Dean, Glacier Peak’s principal.
Meyer is scheduled to graduate Monday with a 4.0 grade point average, top scores on 12 Advanced Placement exams that earned him college credit, and an SAT score of 2390 out of a perfect 2400. With most of those AP exams, he earned perfect scores without even taking the courses.
He missed one SAT question, a vocabulary word. He’ll never forget that batrachology means the study of amphibians.
With so much knowledge, regular classes weren’t suitably rigorous for the 17-year-old Meyer, but he wanted to complete high school at Glacier Peak. For his senior year, he set up an independent study program in advanced physics and multivariable calculus.
“I have a teacher I check in with for attendance every day, but it’s all on my own,” he said. “I go to the school library, take a nice comfy chair and get started.”
He’s excited about the people and challenges he’ll find at Harvard, but quipped that he could get the equivalent of a college education at a public library.
His options seem limitless, but Meyer has yet to settle on one goal. “Anything is possible,” he said. His current interests point toward a career blending biology and computer science. “There’s something really interesting about the human brain computationally,” he said.
Meyer hopes to travel “all over the place,” especially Singapore. He’d like to practice the Chinese language he’s been studying for four years.
A talented musician, Meyer’s original composition “Theme and Variations on Spring” was performed by the Seattle Symphony in 2015 as part of a young composers concert. “I can’t go a day without playing piano,” he said.
He became an Eagle Scout with a project last spring helping Cathcart Elementary School update emergency preparedness plans and supplies.
Meyer worked to bring the Future Problem Solving Program International to his high school. With Thomas Bernardi, a friend since grade school, and other classmates, he has won many of its competitions. He was also part of his school’s state championship Knowledge Bowl team and a National Merit Finalist.
The son of Tauna and Michael Meyer and the eldest of three children, he lives in the Clearview area.
Kevin Winter, a Glacier Peak math teacher, has worked to find learning opportunities for the teen who, by sophomore year, was the school’s top calculus student. “There wasn’t a lot to challenge him here,” Winter said.
Through a new Math Olympics club, Meyer earned the school’s highest score the past three years on a Mathematical Association of America competition exam.
“He’s very gifted,” Winter said. “He is at such a high level and picks up things so quickly, he moves beyond things we understand.”
Along with piano, Meyer likes to play Go, an ancient board game that had its start in China.
“The goal I’m making now is to perpetually learn something, a new skill every few months,” Meyer said.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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