Whiz Kid Katie Lynch

When you hear from a handful of adults about a child who amazes everyone with her knowledge, you know you have a Whiz Kid. That Whiz Kid is Katie Lynch, a sixth grader at Austin Preperatory School in Reading.

If you're a parishioner at St. Raphael's Church, you probably know about Katie from the Kids on the Altar program. In this program, young churchgoers get a chance to help out the priest with the homily. Katie always has the answers. She says her trick is listening to the gospel, and it helps that she grew up going to Catholic school.

Katie's faith is important to her. She serves as an acolyte at St. Ray's, and family friend Claire Howard "helps me out with my faith."

Katie lights up describing her involvement in Drama Club. She began performing in the school play at 6 and is currently the understudy in Cinderella as "Grandma".

In high school, she wants to "focus on History and Social Studies. I want to be an archeologist, but I'm not saying no to author or actress." She's studying Latin now, but may take Spanish or French.

Katie's involved with Tufts Community Music, where she has studied flute and piano. She also enjoys swimming and figure skating.

In the spring, Katie will take the National Mythology Exam, which she hopes will take her to the medal ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Katie's depth and breadth of knowledge is astounding, and her mother says it's "all the more impressive because of her ADD." When Katie states that she'd like people to know "Just because I'm smart, doesn't mean I'm a perfect kid," her mom chuckles.

Katie may not be perfect, but a perfect score on the Mythology Exam is definitely in her future.