ABC7 Top Scholar: Jerry Liu

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (KGO) -- Every year, ABC7 chooses seven Bay Area high school seniors as our Top Scholars. Each one gets a $1000 scholarship. The honor is based on exceptional achievements in academics and extracurricular activities.

Top Scholar Jerry Liu is from Mountain View. He attends Los Altos High School and next fall, he is going to Princeton University to study computer science. Even before he gets there, Jerry is already a successful software designer with an insatiable drive to succeed.

Jerry says, "I really love to build stuff, whether it's a new project I'm tackling in English class or a new app I'm building. I really love the process of creating something, watching it grow from my fingertips."

Jerry is the ultimate well-rounded student. His resume includes piano, track, debate, Future Business Leaders of America, and webmaster of the school newspaper. He even tutors other students.

It could be hard to manage a schedule like that, but Jerry took care of that too. Through the Tech Action Club at Los Altos High School, he created a time management app. It is now used by his fellow students and endorsed by the school district.

Jerry also created two apps offered in the I-Tunes app store. One is a game involving the physics of colliding objects. Jerry says, "I made the artwork. I coded it all from scratch. It took me about two months."

His other app is a game about understanding current events. He says he "realized that a lot of people, especially the youth, might not be aware of national and global issues going on around them, especially on both sides of an issue because often times the world is not black and white. There are different perspectives."

Math teacher Michael Richardson says, "I can't think of any employer who would not want (Jerry) right now. I mean he's very mature and he has a clear picture of what he wants."

Jerry believes doing the long jump helped him find that focus. "The focus that you have to bring into these jumps to hone your technique and really get up into the air and improve your mark, this really taught me a lot about concentration and other areas as well."

As he heads off to Princeton, Jerry says he "definitely could see (himself) creating cool things in the future."

Congratulations Jerry Liu, ABC7 Top Scholar!

Join ABC7 on Sunday, June 30, at 3 p.m. for a special on all seven of this year's Top Scholars.

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ABC7 top scholars, mountain view, education, carolyn johnson

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