Whiz Kid: Liz Demetrides Receives a National Merit Scholarship

By the time she turns 18 on September 2, Cockeysville resident Elizabeth Demetrides will be three days into her freshman year as a math major at the University of Maryland at College Park.

"I'll be at College Park. The first day of classes is on a Wednesday, and my birthday is on a Friday," said Demetrides, who will be assisted financially as the recpient of a National Merit Scholarship award worth $2,000 a year toward her tuition.

Patch when Demetrides was chosen as a Presidential Scholar candidate because of her exceptional SAT scores.

Demetrides scored 2350 on her SATs and graduated from Dulaney Valley High School with a 3.87 grade point average. Minus the writing component of the SAT, Demetrides received a perfect SAT score of 1600.

"There were around seven people at my school who got it. I was really surprised and excited about the scholarship," Demetrides said.

"So right now, my major is math, because you can only declare one as an incoming freshman, but I'm planning on doing math, physics and government," Demetrides said. "I would like to one day be a researcher, maybe a professor. One day, I would really like to teach physics or something. That's something that I really like to do."

In high school, Demetrides was involved in "Youth in Government," a program designed to allow students to emulate the political environment.

"We've gone to Annapolis and it was like mock state legislature," Demetrides said. "We're all senators and representatives and things like that. This past year, I was the leader of the house."

During her free time, the 5-foot- 3 inch Demetrides has played soccer recreationally, and gone skiing and snowboarding during the winter.

She is named Elizabeth after her grandmother, who is called, "Lee," for short. In fact, Lee Demetrides was her granddaughter's inspiration for beginning a summer job volunteering at St. John The Baptist Adult Medical Day Care Center in nearby Hunt Valley.

"It's like a retirement home, except that they don't stay there overnight, just during the day. It's more for the social aspect. My grandmother lives with us, and she has stayed there," Demetrides said.

"I was among the ones who were helping to get it started last summer. I did activies with the elderly," Demetrides continued. "During the summer, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., I was able to do that a lot, and it was very rewarding."