MILWAUKEE — There aren’t many days left in the school year, but David Arthur, a senior at Marquette University High School, is busy preparing for finals and putting the finishing touches on final projects before he leaves high school behind for good. 

“One of my primary extracurriculars here is Science Olympiad, so we do a lot of our building activities in here, we’ve built planes and bridges, robots, a bunch of other stuff that deals with our events here,” Arthur explained in the “Innovation Lab.”

Arthur isn’t involved as much with the building aspect of the Science Olympiad. 

He works on researching different topics, such as astronomy, rocks and minerals, and dynamic planet, which he said deals with hydrology, which is the branch of science concerned with the properties of the earth’s water, and especially its movement in relation to land.

From there, he puts together binders of information that he and a partner use to take exams during their events in the Science Olympiad — which he compared to being like a track meet. 

“You go through, you spend 50 minutes, if you finish early, you can check your answers, and whoever gets the most right at the end wins,” he said. 

On top of Science Olympiad, Arthur has taken 10 Advanced Placement courses, has worked a job since 8th grade, and takes part in choir and orchestra playing the cello. 

He’s done all of that while keeping a 4.44 GPA. 

That all boosts his resume, helping him stand out on college applications, scholarships, and even award applications. 

In May, Arthur got an email at 5:42 a.m. announcing he had won the highest student award in the nation, the U.S. Presidential Scholar award. 

It was given to 161 high school seniors this year — four of those winners are from Wisconsin, and two were named U.S. Presidential Scholars in Career and Technical Education:

• WI – Delafield – David E. Arthur, Marquette University High School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• **WI – Middleton – Daphne Joyce Wu, Middleton High School, Middleton, Wisconsin (U.S. Presidential Scholar in Career and Technical Education).
• WI – Verona – Ananya Krishna, James Madison Memorial High School, Madison, Wisconsin.
• **WI – Waupun – Cameron David Pokorny, Waupun Senior High School, Waupun, Wisconsin (U.S. Presidential Scholar in Career and Technical Education).

The U.S. Department of Education said more than 5,000 seniors qualified. 

To be one of those 161, Arthur said, is humbling.

“Since I knew it was a culmination of all that I’ve done in my four years of high school, I’m honored to have won and be a part of such an accomplished and well-rounded group from across the country,” he said. 

Arthur is headed to Northwestern University in the fall. He’s undecided on his field of study. He said he hopes this award shows students that anything is possible if you work for it.