Erika Lustig loves a great adventure.
Whether it’s a hiking trip to the bottom of the Grand Canyon or four days in the Porcupine Mountains’the Goodrich High School senior thrives on a good challenge.
Yet Lustig’s outdoor quests fall short compared to her exceptional academic achievements.
For starters Lustig scored 35 of 36 on the ACT the national college admissions examination that consists of subject area tests in: English, mathematics, reading and science. That score places her in the top 1 percent of the 1.6 million students who take the test each year. The national average is 21.
Lustig also scored somewhere in the top 15,000 of the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test or PSAT/NSQT. Not a bad score considering the National Merit Corporation reports an estimated 3.6 million high school students took the exam in the fall of 2013. While the score is not used directly by colleges and universities when they make their college admissions decisions, the results are used for awarding many scholarships, including about 8,200 National Merit Scholarships.
‘Actually math is my game,? laughed Lustig. ‘Math is the answer to everything’it’s everywhere in our lives. John Doerr, my high school math teacher, was a big part of getting me interested in math’his energy toward education kept me excited about learning.?
That motivation has kept Lustig driving toward a perfect 4.0 gpa through school and a merit scholarship to Michigan State University Honors College this fall where she’ll dual major in mathematics and computer science. Due to college credits earned and advanced placement tests while in high school she’ll start MSU this fall as a sophomore.
‘My grades were not good enough for Harvard or Northwestern University but they are very competitive schools,? he said. ‘After college I have no idea what I’m going to do. It was enough of a struggle to declare a major.?
Currently, Lustig is enrolled at Oakland University and the University of Michigan-Flint where she is learning computer science, multivariate calculus, and Italian.
‘I want to visit Italy someday’I’d love to learn to cook there and eat their food,? she said. ‘I’ve been a Girl Scout in Goodrich Troop 11517 since kindergarten’it’s been a lot of fun, especially the summer camps.?
‘I’ve always been an avid reader,? she added. ‘When I was little, rather than be grounded from television, I was grounded from books.?
Erika is the daughter of Rae and David Lustig of Grand Blanc. She has one sister, Holly.