Oakdale Patch Whiz Kid: Sean Gulbranson

Oakdale Patch Whiz Kid of the Week: Sean Gulbranson, 14

School:

Accomplishment: Gulbranson got two perfect scores in the WordMasters Challenge competition.

Key to Awesomeness: If you were a fly on the wall at Skyview Middle School, you might have heard Sean Gulbranson and his friends tossing around words like “remuneration,” “acquiesce” and “lamentation.” This isn’t something they do all the time, but in the weeks leading up to their WordMasters Challenge tests they tried to use the 20 to 25 words they had to learn in regular conversation as a method of study. That and working nightly with note cards paid off for Gulbranson, as he got a perfect score on two of the tests, a first for Skyview Middle School, he said. For the tests, students must learn the definitions of the words in a challenging vocabulary list, but they then must be able to show they know the words’ meanings by using them to complete analogies. Gulbranson said he loves to read, and so he’s usually done well on language arts tests, but still he tends to get nervous before exams, and he was shocked when he learned his score.

Gulbranson stays busy at school as a participant in student council, jazz band, newspaper, knowledge bowl, Students Against Destructive Decisions and Good Morning Skyview.

In the future, Gulbranson hopes to become an architect.

Each week, Oakdale Patch will seek suggestions from readers for individual kids, youth groups, teens and even sports teams that wow us with their accomplishments. We want to hear about these amazing children and teens and select one each week as the Oakdale Patch Whiz Kid.  Submit your nomination in our comment box below or e-mail the information to patty.busse@patch.com. Be sure to include all of the following information: nominator's name, nominator's e-mail, Whiz Kid's name, Whiz Kid's age, Whiz Kid's school, Whiz Kid's accomplishment, Whiz Kid's key to awesomeness (what made him/her successful?)

If your nominee is selected, we'll contact you and assign a photographer to take a photo. For questions, e-mail patty.busse@patch.com.