Meet local students who have distinguished themselves in their classes and community

Remember being a kid? No stress. Long lazy summer days sitting around the house playing.

For some local kids that's, well, just kid stuff.

Clark County is brimming with outstanding students whose teachers say they excel in and out of school, rising to challenges and striving to better themselves and their community.

"We have a lot of great students in the district that are accomplishing remarkable things," Lori Harris, a public information specialist for the Clark County School District, says. "What makes these kids stand out from the others is that several of them have been recognized nationally."

Here are their stories:

* Casey Millington bends to tighten the prestigious black belt around her white karate uniform, flipping her long, light brown hair out of the way. "I like (karate) because it teaches you to protect yourself," the 9-year-old honor student at Gilbert Magnet Elementary says, her thin, lithe frame lost in the expanse of stiff fabric.

At age 5, Casey was the youngest black belt in Nevada. Her mother says she was inspired by three hard-shelled reptiles. "She saw the Ninja Turtles and said she wanted to try it," Linda Millington says. "I didn't want to hold her back but, really, I thought she would tire of it."

The active preteen's schedule is regulated by any dip in her grades. "If they go down, she has to stop," her mother says.

Casey maintains her straight A average while also performing with the UNLV Dancin' Rebels at sporting events and the acting group Showbiz Kids, and is involved in community and charity functions. She sings, too. "She sets her goals high," her mother says.

Casey would rather test herself and try something new than play in the yard, although she does take time for bike riding. "I see other kids in the street doing nothing and I'm always going someplace," she says with a gap-toothed smile.

* From the moment the 6-inch, orange homemade rocket fell back to earth, William Martin was hooked. "He's been into anything that flies since he could just about crawl," his father, David Martin, says.

The 9-year-old honor student has won national awards for his poetry and essays about family, and took first place in last year's Nevada State Science Fair for his project on rocket projectory.

Also a Gilbert Magnet Elementary School fourth-grader, the shy boy hides behind his Boy Scout badges and medals, but lights up when explaining engine propulsion or rocket crafting.

"I like putting on the wings, they are the hardest part to get to stay on," he says, his small, freckled hands gesturing to punctuate his explanation of the challenges of rocket building. Some of the rockets he has tested are taller than he is.

As a long-term goal, he would like to learn to fly. "Either in the Air Force or Navy S.E.A.L.S.," he says, gliding his hand like a plane over the back of the sofa. "Or NASA."

* Maps cover the walls and a well-used globe teeters on its axis on a desk -- the giveaway that this bedroom belongs to two-time state geography champion Peter Guekguezian, who will compete in the National Geography Bee in Washington, D.C. this month.

"I've always wanted to know where I am, what's out there," Peter says, adding: "I don't have to study, I just like it." The First Presbyterian Academy eighth-grader ticks off the imports and exports of Lithuania, its population and, finally, its location in the world.

At 2 years old, Peter's favorite toy was a pocket atlas given to him by his uncle to let him know where he was in relation to his family in other parts of the United States. "He was always obsessed with learning things," Peter's mother, Vivy Guekguezian, says. "First it was the alphabet, then numbers, but when he found geography, well, geography is endless."

Peter doesn't plan to see the new "Star Wars: Episode 1 -- The Phantom Menace." " 'Star Wars,' that's fantasy and people live in fantasy worlds when we should live in our own," he says, noting that he has yet to map out his future.

"I'll be whatever God wants me to be," he says, jumping off his bed to the map-littered floor.

* For Neil Schiff, the hallowed halls of academia may lead to the living room. But the 17-year-old National Merit Award finalist says home schooling has offered a feast of opportunities for the once-bored public school student. "I could concentrate better" studying at home, he says. "There's not people talking all over the place."

Nancy Schiff, his mother, who is also a substitute teacher for the Clark County School District, began home schooling Neil when he was 10, after he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder as a fifth-grader.

Amid sprawling house plants and piles of books at his family's home in the Southwest part of the valley, Schiff has studied vigorously over the years to become one of 7,400 students to receive a national merit award for getting high scores on a pre-scholastic aptitude test.

But Neil isn't just a stay-at-home-student: He joined Sign Design, a theater for the deaf, Jewish youth groups and the Boy Scouts, for which he is an assistant scout master. He received a presidential scholarship to attend Brandeis University in Massachusetts in the fall. Neil's quiet, subtle laugh comes out whenever he is asked about his achievements, which he says are "cool," but just another step toward reaching his dreams.

* Jeff Walker, a blond, blue-eyed athlete, bounds down the volleyball court. But inside the Green Valley High School team uniform is a high school junior looking to the community's future as well as his own. Two years ago Jeff thought the graduating class of 2000 should be recognized as more than just another number.

"I knew we would be different because of the year we were graduating," he says. "Student councils raised money with proms and events, but community service (activities) is the one thing" the groups hadn't participated in enough. "If we teach (kids) in high school to give back to the community, then when we become adults, we will already know how."

Jeff created a 34-page service booklet that takes a student council through fund-raising efforts step-by-step. He took the project further by asking U.S. Bank to donate trophies and a cash reward for an annual contest to reward the best Nevada student council fund-raising event.

In two years his idea grew. More than 80,000 Nevada high school students participated in the 1998-99 school year fund-raising contest, "2000 Tomorrows."

His hard work and creative ingenuity earned him a ticket to Washington, D.C., where he received the Prudential Spirit of Community Award, which included a $1,000 prize. The 17-year-old junior was recently elected next school year's student body president, and is leaving his plans for the future open.

"I want no limits," he says. "I am interested in everything."

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