Shoreline 11th grader garners multiple academic awards

Long-time Shoreline resident Francis Wilson is a junior at Lakeside School where he transferred after Meridian Park's Highly Capable Program.

Francis has received a full NSLI-Y (National Security Language Initiative for Youth) scholarship from the Department of State to study Arabic and Moroccan cultural studies in Rabat, Morocco for six weeks this summer, from July- August.  Last summer, he was a Global Service Learning Program participant in Morocco.

He will be attending the U.S. Naval Academy's Summer Seminar in Annapolis, MD as well as the "Leadership for America" Seminar at the Tilden Center in Los Angeles, CA in June.

He was named a 'Top 10 Winner' of the Creative Power Essay Writing Contest in March 2012.  Here is a link to an article about Francis and his winning essay, "Time to Wake Up from the American Dream."

"...it was a real blessing to have been given the opportunity to live for a month without worrying about these school-centered troubles and be involved in the lives of a small Moroccan village. I witnessed in Morocco a happiness that did not come from material wealth or the professions that we tend to attribute to success."

Last month, he received the the Athena Gold Award of Excellence for a perfect score in the National Mythology Exam sponsored by The American Classical League; he has also received the 'Summa Cum Laude' award two years in a row in the National Latin Exam.

He serves as a juror for the Shoreline/Lake Forest Park Youth Court and next year he will be the Editor in Chief of Tatler, Lakeside Upper School's newspaper, as well as the Co-Captain of the school's Knowledge Bowl team which has won the State Tournament and has participated in the Nationals.