By Omie Drawhorn
Academics have always come easily for Silverton High School senior Michael Timmons. But Timmons has a genuine passion for learning that has inspired him beyond his strongest subjects: math and science.
So it was no surprise to those who know him that he was named Commended Student in the 2013 National Merit Scholarship Program, no small feat.
Timmons is one of about 34,000 Commended Students in the United States. Although they will not continue in the 2013 competition for National Merit Scholarship awards, these students placed among the top five percent of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2013 competition by taking the 2011 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).
Timmons said the status as a Commended Student is very impressive on a college application and can result in scholarships from a school.
“My math score was good, my science score was good; my reading and writing was better than average but not as good (as the other scores),” he said. He scored a 202 on the test, with 240 being a perfect score.
Timmons has set his sights high and wants to study geology at Oxford University, located in England and one of the top universities in the world.
According to the school’s Web site, more than 17,000 people applied for around 3,000 undergraduate places in 2011.
“I have a 20 percent chance of getting in, depending on the program,” he said.
He said an additional bonus of the school is the chance to earn his masters degree in three years.
Although Timmons describes himself as “definitely a math and science” person, he counts Advanced Placement (AP) language and composition, as well as his experience on speech and debate team as among his favorite academic experiences.
“I really like nonfiction, and it was interesting to write and talk about different issues; it blends with debate.”
With AP classes, students take courses to prepare them for an exam that can result in college credit.
His AP language and composition teacher Melissa Boyd said he is “one of the most brilliant minds” that she’s ever had the pleasure of teaching.
“He is extremely analytical and insightful. He’s able to analyze the complexity of arguments with his debating skills. In addition, he’s able to formulate his own arguments in a precise, concise form.”
Boyd was ecstatic when she heard the news.
“I was so excited for him that I immediately found him and congratulated him.”
She recently helped facilitate a Skype interview between Timmons and Oxford University.
“Wow! All I did was introduce him. Michael took it from there.”
Timmons said he’d love it if the high school could add AP science courses into the mix, and is currently studying AP biology on his own. “I really like independent work,” he said.
Timmons said his time studying varies from no time to over an hour each night.
He took physics and calculus sophomore year (classes normally reserved for seniors) and was a teaching assistant in physics class his junior year.
His 3.4 grade point average is decent, but Timmons said it probably would have been higher if he hadn’t take physics and calculus so early on.
Martin Cunningham, Timmons’ physics teacher said “as a teaching assistant Michael was indispensible” in helping the class work through data collection and analysis in the various labs.
He said physics seems to play toward Timmons’ strengths.
“Mathematics lends itself to multiple ways of finding solutions and Michael is an expert at analyzing a problem from different mathematical perspectives. The same can be said for Michael’s problem solving skills…. His ability to analyze a situation devise a solution from some novel perspective clearly distinguishes him from other students.”
Timmons would like to see the school shift the focus from sports to offer more extracurricular options, like a debate model United Nations.
“It’s just as rewarding as sports and it improves the educational experience,” he said.
Timmons’ experience with speech has been some of the most rewarding of his time in high school. .
“Speech is an awesome way to get to know people from all sorts of schools with various ideas. They all (or at least the vast majority) like to seek challenge and knowledge, and understand the fun of learning, which creates this odd sense of belonging with those that you are competing against,” he said. “The competition aspect is fun too, because it showcases the work you spend on each case or each speech.”
Timmons, who has always been book smart, learned to not to be as afraid of being in front of people.
He is also a part of the outdoor club, which he said extends from an interest in observing nature.
Timmons said he also finds himself trying to find random patterns.
“My physics teacher would always have an interesting time grading my work because I would find ways around using the same formulas as the rest of the class, however I was usually correct, because my formula was just made a little bit simpler off of combinations of the other formulas we are given.”
Timmons is amused by rumors about the fact that he can hack into any computer at any time. He said the rumor could have resulted from him taking programming classes and the fact that he has helped teachers bypass a web filter so they can use YouTube.
“I’ve actually heard that quite a lot, which is really, really odd because I have never actually hacked any computers,” he said. “I suppose maybe if I really, really wanted to, I could, but I really don’t see much of a point in doing so.”
