Chess players have senior Andrei Elliot to thank.

Free State did not have a chess team Elliot’s sophomore year, so he re-organized the club.  The team made an amazing comeback, placing first this year at the state tournament.

Along with reviving a school club, Elliot takes on impressive academic challenges.  Throughout high school he has taken numerous AP classes and he even ventures to KU for additional higher level courses.

Elliot plans on becoming a student at KU in the fall.  He has obtained enough credits through AP tests to make a double major in computer science and math manageable.

“I’m going to try and learn as much as I can about my favorite subjects,” Elliot said.

Despite his academic achievements, Elliot views himself in a more humble way.

“To myself I am a major geek, and that probably shows through to everyone else,” Elliot said.

This label has no negative connotations in his mind, though.

“(I’m) proud to be a geek,” Elliot said.

Geek or not, Elliot advises any student looking to become successful to find their passion.

“Mostly it’s either love what you’re doing or do what you love,” Elliot said, “and for me that happens to be something within academics.”

It isn’t difficult to recognize that Elliot truly enjoys learning.  His love for math and science extends outside the classroom.

“I love math, science, programming,” Elliot said. “…To the point of if I didn’t have stuff to do some of the stuff I would end up doing in free time would be math, looking up obscure math terms on Wikipedia or something like that.”

Through his resurrection of the chess team and his school work, Elliot provides an example to students of how successful people can be when they do something they truly enjoy.