Beachwood Patch Whiz Kid of the Week Elliot Angart

Age: 17

School: Beachwood High School

Accomplishment: is president of the high school debate team and the National Honor Society, as well as a member of model U.N.

Key to Awesomeness: Elliot Angart doesn’t mind being so busy. In fact, he relishes it.

He’s made finals at the Ohio High School Speech League State Tournament three times, has a 4.2 GPA and at 17 he was picked to coordinate an event for the National Federation of Temple Youth that hosts hundreds of teens from Ohio, western Pennsylvania, Upstate New York and eastern Canada.

It all fits into his plan: to seize every opportunity.

“If you just let life go by you, you’re not as significant throughout history,” he said. “I’m going to be graduating in a few months and I’d like to think I’m contributing something to Beachwood.”

It’s a lesson he learned from a language arts teacher at Hilltop Elementary, that he should always be doing something, contributing to something.

Now that lesson is paying off. He’ll likely have his pick of colleges once he graduates this spring. He’s already been accepted to Miami University (Ohio), Penn State, University of Wisconsin at Madison and Northeastern University, and he’s still waiting to hear back from Georgetown and Columbia universities and Washington University in St. Louis.