SHAPE Student Potential National Merit Scholarship Winner
Caleb Crotts outside the American Secondary Section of the SHAPE International School. |
About a month ago, Caleb Crotts was called into the office at the American Section of the SHAPE International School resulting in his brain going into overdrive. “Let’s face it,” says the 17-year-old junior, “when you’re called into the office you’re never going in there expecting the best. I instantly was trying to think ‘I haven’t done anything wrong’, so what could this possibly be about?”
It was about a letter. A letter telling him that he was in the top five percent of the 1.5 million students who had taken the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) and the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test this spring. The tests measure critical reading skills, maths problem-solving and writing skills. This year Crotts is the only student at the SHAPE International School to gain a place in that top five percent.
The two-hour exam is taken by American Grade 11 students as a barometer of academic performance in advance of writing the SAT in Grade 12, an academic requirement for admittance to an American university, or college as it’s more commonly known in the United States.
There are 515 students in grades 7 to 12 at the American Secondary Section. The junior/senior class (grades 11 and 12), consists of 145 students. “It’s considered a small school in the United States but it’s a fairly large Department of Defense school,” says Steve Brown, Principal of the American High School.
“I felt pretty special.” said Crotts, the son of Colonel Derik and Danna Crotts, when he saw the letter. Crotts scored 201 out of a possible 240. That puts him in the running for a variety of different scholarships offered by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
And he says there’s another benefit to doing so well. “You pick two universities of your choice,” he explained, “and they [the National Merit Scholarship Corporation] will supply those universities with your name and address. So it’s kind of like they’re alerting these universities of applicants that are scoring in this range.”
“I’ve enjoyed school but not always just because of the learning aspects of it,” says Crotts. “It’s a great thing for social development and I enjoy the environment. Classes are always more interesting if you’ve got friends in the class. Even if you have a boring class but you have a friend to work on the projects with or to discuss homework with, that can just make the class that much more bearable.”
He says it’s hard to choose a favourite subject because “It’s kind of a toss up with favourite subjects between subjects either you’re good at, or a subject that’s enjoyable because of the teacher.” Caleb goes on to say, “For instance, this year I’m having a lot of fun in psychology. It’s only a semester-long course and the teacher is… it’s just really fun learning from him because he’s a really interesting guy, it’s an interesting class and he presents it in a real fun way. I’d probably say [my favourite subject is] math. I have a wonderful math teacher so he’s been able to present a lot of information. In the beginning of the year we re-learned a lot of stuff that we covered in the previous math level and I found myself able to understand it a lot better and I really feel I’m learning a lot in this course. It’s just interesting sometimes the way some of the numbers work out.”
When asked what he wants to study after high school, Crotts replied that he’s leaning towards law. “For a while it was a toss up,” he says. “I’ve always been really interested in psychology. It would be a really interesting career path for therapy. I can see myself doing that. But at the same time my parents mentioned law to me and it’s becoming more and more appealing. I can easily see myself arguing in a courtroom on either side of a case. Either that or I could just be an actor.”
Outside of school Crotts has many interests. Since coming to SHAPE last year, he has performed in three plays put on by the SHAPE Players: High School Musical, Scrooge and Viva Las Wedding. He also finds time to play guitar and study Japanese through an on-line learning course. And he’s a huge fan of anime (Japanese animation).
Crotts says the international aspect of the school at SHAPE has made a difference to his learning. Having people from different countries enriches the classroom experience. “I’m in Spanish 3 right now and we have three people from three different countries: Slovakia, Hungary and Italy. And that’s just really interesting because they seem to grasp language really well so it’s just fun and interesting because they have a different perspective on things. It’s fun to hear them compare the current course work to course work back in their own countries.”
“I’d say I’ve enjoyed school,” says Crotts. “As much as I look forward to summer, by the end of summer you start to miss seeing your friends on a regular basis. This year especially I’m starting to learn better study habits that are getting me ready for university at least.” He’ll find out in September if he’s won any of the scholarships available from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.