Down-to-Earth All-Rounder

Our Whiz Kid of the Week is a multi-talented junior at who is a martial artist, musician, runner, honor student and babysitter all rolled into one.

• Whiz Kid's Name/Age: Bethany Park, 15.

• Whiz Kid's School/Church/Community Center: Eagle Rock High School.

• Whiz Kid's Accomplishment: Besides pursuing a rigorous academic schedule that includes five AP classes this school year, plus trigonometry and French, Bethany has done varsity cross country, taught herself to play the piano and ukulele and taken mission trips with her church to Arizona, Mexico and Belize.

• Whiz Kid's Key to Awesomeness: When Bethany isn't perfecting her roundhouse kicks—she's a brown belt in hapkido—or taking weekend art classes, she's doing any number of things such as practicing piano, trying to maser the ukulele or working as a youth counselor at her church.

• Bonus Whiz Kid Info: Bethany regularly babysits her siblings so that her parents can go out at night every now and then. When her neighbors had a birthday party for their five-year-old, she went over and made balloon animals for the kids free of charge. She's a responsible house sitter and always willing to help out her friends and neighbors. Bethany recently began training for the Eagle Rock High Dust Bowl, a popular tradition at the school in which, in a refreshing reversal of roles, she will play football while the school's young men cheer the girls on. Bethany also has many "useless but entertaining skills," as she disarmingly calls them, including the ability to balance a broomstick on her chin and walk on her hands—talents that help make her a highly popular youth leader as well as much-in-demand babysitter. Bethany is on track to earn her black belt in hapkido by next year and is considering a career in the FBI or the military.