LIHUE — Leila Nelson turned heads when she scored a 1540 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test the first time she took it, but 60 points shy of perfect wasn’t going to cut it for the Kapaa High School senior.
So she took the test again.
And this time, it was perfect.
“I feel like I can always improve and I thought I could do better,” Nelson said. “I think it really helped doing the test a few times.”
She hit her mark just before the last semester of her senior year — scoring a perfect 1600 and joining the fraction of a percent of students nationwide with perfect scores.
Five percent of test-takers score above a 1400, according to College Board.
With her sights set on Duke University and a degree in either psychology or environmental science, Nelson works at Kapaa Elementary School through the A Plus Program, is involved in multiple clubs at Kapaa High, is a cross-country runner and a tennis player, and folds origami in her spare time.
And all the while, Nelson is maintaining a 4.196 GPA.
“She’s probably been at the top of her class since kindergarten,” said counselor Terri Christensen. “She’s a good team player, and she’s humble.”
Nelson is so low-key, in fact, that she wasn’t planning on announcing her high scores to anyone except family and close friends. That hope was dashed when a friend saw her score while they were in class and spilled the news.
“My results were taking a long time to load (onto the computer), all day, and so I had it loading and I accidentally clicked on the tab,” Nelson said. “There was my score, and my friend saw it and announced it to the whole class.”
It’s not just classmates, friends and family that are celebrating Nelson’s perfect score — administration and staff at Kapaa High is proud, too.
“As far as we know, it’s the first time ever that a Kapaa High student has gotten a perfect score,” said vice principal Diane Ayre.
Hailing from Wailua Homesteads, Nelson has a sister at Oregon State, a brother who is a freshman at Kapaa High, four stepsiblings and a half sister still in diapers.
Her family is supportive, but it’s her own drive that makes Nelson go the extra distance.
“I’m ambitious,” she said. “My parents, they support me, but they don’t put pressure on me. Right now, it’s the thought of college that’s keeping me motivated.”
While she finishes high school, Nelson is taking advantage of Kapaa High’s college credit program and will be graduating with college credits already racked up from Kauai Community College.
“Leila’s the kind of student who got where she’s at because of her hard work,” Christensen said. “She’s got a lot of support, but she’s self-directed and self-driven.”
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Jessica Else, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0452 or at jelse@thegardenisland.com
Awesome job, young lady!