Maui teen still humble
after major successesA high school junior assembles
a dizzying record of achievement
He plays piano. He plays football. He extracts DNA from tomatoes. He coaches asthmatic kids. He aces his classes.
He tutors high-school dropouts so gently and effectively that he has a wait list.
His name is Jonathan-James Eno and he is only 16.
A junior at Maui's Baldwin High School, Eno will fly to Chicago this week to receive a $25,000 scholarship, a Discover Card Tribute Award, given to nine students selected from 8,000 applicants nationwide. The students are chosen for excelling in all areas of life, not just academics, by Discover Card in partnership with the American Association of School Administrators.
Ask friends and teachers to describe "JJ" Eno, and the first word that comes out is "humble." He doesn't even clue in his own parents, Jon and Sharon Eno, of Kahului, on his accomplishments.
"He continues to surprise us," said his mother. "Last year, we didn't know he was editor of his school paper until we read it in the paper. We're his family. We're supposed to know these things."
Maybe he has a hard time keeping track of them all. Eno doesn't just play football. He helped lead his team to a league championship, catching the winning touchdown. He is also a starting player on the varsity baseball and soccer teams, both of which won league championships.
Students gravitate toward him when they face challenging problems in the classroom and on the playing field, because of his rare talents, said Christopher Daly, his football coach and pre-calculus teacher.
"JJ has already done so much for his community as just a junior in high school," Daly marveled in a letter of recommendation. "He is a model student and young scientist, and has exemplified the spirit of selfless giving."
After sports practice, Eno swings by the Maui Community School for Adults one evening a week to volunteer as a math tutor, where students line up for a chance to work with him, according to Sylvia Ishikawa, literacy coordinator at the school. She credits his "easy smile and good manners" along with his uncanny ability to explain things.
Academically, Eno stands out. He joined 20 other U.S. delegates at the Korea-U.S. Science and Engineering Camp in Daejon, South Korea, last summer. He was nominated for the U.S.A. Math Talent Search team. Three years ago he placed third in the national Discovery Young Scientist Challenge among 40,000 entries. More recently, he worked with a plant pathologist at the Kula Experiment Station, extracting DNA to determine whether a hybrid tomato had a disease-resistant chain.
He has played piano since age 6, plays the organ at Wailuku Hongwanji Mission and tooted the trumpet in the Hula Bowl.
This year, he was president of the Maui United Junior Young Buddhist Association. He volunteered at the American Lung Association Asthma Camp, teaching kids how to cope with their asthma while playing sports. He even reads to kids at his old preschool.
Asked how he manages everything, Eno said simply, "I just try to stay level-headed." His motto is to "go all out" and not hold back. "Even if you fall short," he said, "you know you made the effort."
His parents, both public school teachers, shrug off their role in his success, saying he is self-motivated.
"We don't think we have done things differently than many, many other parents who have had success with their
children," said his father, a social studies teacher at Baldwin.
The youngest of three children, Eno hopes to use his scholarship to attend Brown University or Johns Hopkins University after he graduates. He plans to focus on biomedical engineering because he is fascinated by the "mysteries of medicine and science."
Despite his incredible resume, his mother says he is still a typical teen in some ways.
"I do have to get after him to clean his room," she said. "Now that the girls are gone, it overflows into his sisters' room. So that's a constant battle."