Galt High School senior, 15, earns perfect score on ACT
Steven Sharp’s bespectacled eyes portray a wisdom beyond his years, which is fitting as the Galt High School senior is only 15 years old.
Sharp, who had been homeschooled until he started ninth grade at the age of 12, recently achieved a perfect score of 36 on his ACT, which he says he walked into without studying. He is also a four-year varsity golf and cross country athlete, president of the G-TECH Robotics Club and treasurer of the California Scholarship Federation service club, all while maintaining a 4.4 GPA.
He has also completed nine Advanced Placement (AP) tests so far, with five more scheduled for his upcoming senior year. He took AP calculus and chemistry his freshman year, physics, calculus B/C and world history his sophomore year and biology, statistics and computer science principles his junior year.
“High school hasn’t been that challenging for me, although I suppose it was difficult finding time for all of my AP classwork and tests,” said Sharp.
For the Robotics Club, he has attended various competitions in which teams earn points for getting their robots to perform various tasks, placing first in their school’s league during Sharp’s freshman and junior years.
“This year was the most complex. There was a fence in the middle of the field, and the goal was to move large foam jacks from one side of the fence to the other while preventing the other team from doing the same. The jacks were hard to grab, and we created a robot that hung from a plastic pole,” said Sharp.
The competition was a friendly one, according to engineering and technology teacher Brooke Beckett, who explained that all of the teams were helpful and supportive of one another, as they all had no idea which team they would be partnered with until moments before the competition.
Sharp was also one of Galt High’s Rotary Youth Leadership Association leaders for 2017, having been selected along with one boy and girl from each high school to attend a four-day leadership camp near Yosemite. At the camp, the students listened to guest speakers, collaborated on group projects and presented them to their peers.
“My favorite part of the camp was definitely getting to know people from different backgrounds ,” said Sharp.
During his free time, Sharp enjoys conversing with people over his ham radio, for which he obtained a license in 2011.
After high school, he plans to study aerospace engineering at the California Institute of Technology with the ultimate goal of working for NASA.
Sharp was also recently hired to help manage the new Information Technology program by Beckett to help train students as well as design and maintain websites. Sharp will appear on Good Day Sacramento on Wednesday morning.
Sharp’s mother, Melanie, also reported that he was at the top of his class in the American Mathematics Competition 10 test during his sophomore year in 2013, and is currently trying to convince a teacher to let him take the 12th grade version of the college preparatory math test this year.