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BY JENNIFER FEEHAN BLADE STAFF WRITER
Learning their son had aced both the SAT and the ACT couldn’t have come as too much of a surprise to Scott and Bobbi Wheelock.
Their only child, Sean, a senior at St. John’s Jesuit High School, learned to tell time as a toddler, begged his mom to buy more plastic letters so that he could make more words, and asked his parents to create pages of math problems for him before he was even in school.
He mastered his multiplication and division facts in kindergarten and took freshman algebra — the highest-level math course at Christ the King School — in sixth grade. The West Toledoan transferred to St. John's Academy in seventh grade so he could take high-school-level courses, and he's now enrolled in Calculus 3 at the University of Toledo.
“He just seems to enjoy everything,” Mrs. Wheelock, a commodity buyer at Owens-Illinois Inc., said. “He just has a gusto for everything. Whatever he gets involved in, he just does it to the max.”
His current GPA is a 4.95 on the grading scale weighted for advanced placement and honors classes, a 4.0 on the unweighted scale. He’s taken eight exams for advanced placement classes at St. John’s and scored a 5 — the highest possible grade — on all eight.
Teachers and school administrators say Sean is not just smart, he’s the total package. He’s on the debate team, and he plays varsity golf and tennis. He’s student body president, a student ambassador, and he’s involved in Christian service.
“Sean is just extremely gifted,” said Brad Bonham, St. John’s principal. “He’s an outstanding student, but he’s one of those guys that’s very mature for his age. He’s respected by a lot of kids in his class, and he’s very, very social. He’s got a lot of friends.”
A tall, slim 18-year-old with a golfer's tan, Sean can't really explain his success other than to say he loves to learn. He has a deep affinity for St. John's and never considered forgoing his senior year to start college early.
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