The Old Orchard Beach graduating senior is one of the top 10 students in her class, and she’s managed this academic excellence while working up to 35 hours a week at a Subway restaurant and being active in various school activities.
“I just get my work done whenever I can,” she said.
Bouthiller, 18, has been a member of the marching band, jazz choir, Natural Helpers, the National Honor Society, Interact and the Spanish club. She also was on the track team for three years, and has been active in the school drama club and the York County Regional Fine Arts Program.
Wait, that’s not all. She volunteered helping to teach music at Loranger Memorial School, and spent free periods as a lab assistant. This summer, she’ll be waitressing in addition to working at Subway.
She has had the occasional late night, she said, but at the end of the day, her schoolwork is always completed.
“I’m just a high-energy person in general,” she said. “I’ve always been inspired by my dad. He’s such a hard-working person.”
Bouthiller has been accepted to Minerva Schools at KGI, a unique college established in 2012. With an acceptance rate of about 2 percent, it’s one of the most selective schools in the country.
The first year, Bouthiller will be in San Francisco, and then will move to a different location each semester in her sophomore through senior years for a total of seven cities worldwide.
Classes are taught online through the school’s Active Learning Forum, with online classes in a set-up designed to promote interactive experiences.
Bouthiller plans to major in computational and natural science, and wants to become an agricultural engineer.
Combining her loves of gardening, food and community service, she wants to design ways to help those with little access to fresh food grow vegetables and fruits.
“I want to make plants grow where plants aren’t supposed to grow,” she said.
— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 325 or [email protected].
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