On a brisk December morning, Amanda Gordon of Fox Island woke up at 4:30 a.m. with three letters eating away at her nerves: SAT.
After a protein breakfast and a large quantity of dark chocolate, Gordon quickly put on her shoes and headed out the door.
“Overall, just a lot of sugar in the system,” Gordon said.
The only problem was that she was wearing two different shoes — something her mother, Mikki Gordon, now jokes about being the reason her daughter scored a 730 on her verbal SATs.
That same month, Gordon scored a 33 on the reading portion of the ACT; only 4 percent of college-bound high school seniors test higher.
However, Gordon wasn’t a high school senior at the time. She was an eighth-grader at Kopachuck Middle School in Gig Harbor.
Earlier this month, Gordon and 131 other seventh- and eighth-graders were recognized at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth. To achieve Grand Ceremony status, seventh-graders had to post an SAT score in one area of at least 700 or an ACT score of 28 or higher.
Eighth-graders needed at least a 750 on a section of the SAT or an ACT score of 32 or higher.
More than 63,000 students participated in the talent searches offered by the Center for Talented Youth, a nonprofit center at Johns Hopkins. Among them, more than 24,000 then took either both the SAT or ACT — or just one test.
And of those thousands, only 132 students scored high enough to be honored, said Amanda’s father Mike Gordon said.
Gordon also was recognized in March at the Robinson Center for Young Scholars at the University of Washington.
Many of Gordon’s dreams and early accomplishments began in local libraries. As early as 10, Gordon said she was checking out as many as 15 books at a time.
“She was inhaling them,” said her mother, Mikki Gordon.
Now instead of merely reading books, she’s writing them. Gordon already has finished one novel and hopes to turn into a multi-part series.
Gordon and her family also attribute Voyager Elementary and Kopachuck Middle School teachers as catalysts in Amanda’s academic growth.
Gordon spends most of her free time reading fiction, including gothic age historical fiction. She also surfs the Internet, and she’s interested in taking up archery and fencing.
Despite all the certainties in Gordon’s life, there are some uncertainties facing the 14-year-old. She’s having mixed emotions about going to high school and isn’t sure of her future professional goals.
“It’s not something that I’m good at deciding,” Gordon said.
Her current interests are in law and astrophysics — a combination that her father believes could help her pioneer an entirely new profession.
Gordon hopes to start college courses this fall during her freshman year at Gig Harbor High School. She’ll begin her university search soon thereafter.
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