Peter Jacob Mersino feels most comfortable in the air: both while at the controls of a glider plane and soaring over the bar in the pole vault.
"Flying makes you look at the world in a different way," he said.
Jacob, who goes by his middle name, carries a 4.08 grade-point average, including four semesters of college math. He has a private pilot's license for soaring and is ranked among the Valley's top pole vaulters.
His list of extracurricular activities includes playing clarinet and tuba in the school band, composing music for the choir and participating in Mock Trial and Academic Decathlon. He also finds time to tutor students in math and volunteer for community-service projects.
"Jacob has squeezed more out of the first 17 years of his life than any young person I've come into contact with," said Karl Peterson, Jacob's counselor at Clovis East. "He really is remarkable."
Of all his accomplishments, Jacob said he is most proud of the four houses he helped build for homeless families in Mexico during the past four spring breaks with his church group.
Jacob won an appointment to the Air Force Academy in the class that will enter in fall 2008. Next year, he will attend Northwestern Preparatory School, an institution in Southern California that readies students for service academies. He plans to pursue missionary aviation, transporting materials and medical supplies to Third World countries, after he retires from the military.
"America focuses too much on itself," Jacob said, "and not enough on what's going on around us."
-- Marek Warszawski
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Academic All-Stars 2007
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