Whiz Kid: Acting Star Leslie Markevitch

Whiz Kids is a weekly feature in which Patch profiles an outstanding youngster or youth group. This week's Whiz Kid is Leslie Markevitch, who is awesome because she's a star onstage and in the classroom.

Whiz Kid: Leslie Markevitch

Age: 15

School: Hoboken High School, 9th Grade

Just 15, Leslie Markevitch is already learning the difference between acting onstage and acting in front of a television camera. Alongside her fellow cast members from Hoboken High's spring production of Hairspray, Leslie recently performed on the Fox 5 New York morning show.

“It's different than being onstage,” she says. “The camera is an invisible audience.”

“But either way you can't mess up,” she says.

A 9^th grader, Leslie is very active in the school's drama club. She said that auditioning, rehearsing and performing Hairspray was a really long process. The show was a success with sellout crowds.

“I felt like the outcome was worth the time. Everything was worth it,” she says.

She's also a member of the art club and the environmental science club. She says she enjoys the science club because the students go on hands-on, interactive field trips to places like arbor parks and water treatment plants. She continues her interest in the environment by gardening at home.

In school her favorite subjects are math and language arts. She was able to take algebra a year early, and is now enjoying geometry. She likes reading, and in her spare time writes her own poems and short stories.

For her good grades and extracurricular activities, Leslie was awarded with March student of the month honors for Hoboken High's entire 9th grade.

"I wasn't expecting it," she says. "But I was really happy when I found out I won."

Leslie thinks she might want to be a teacher when she gets older, but she knows right now she's young, and her diverse interests will leave her with options.

“I have plenty of time to think about the future,” she says.

Do you know a Whiz Kid, or even a whole group of them? Send any and all nominations to alanskontra@hotmail.com, and check back every Wednesday afternoon to read about some outstanding youngsters in your community.