Whiz Kid: Student Helping to Recognize Lost Vietnam Soldiers

Name: Michelle Kerr

Age: 18

School:

Accomplishment: Kerr, a senior at Edsel Ford, was approached to be a student assistant for English teacher Lisa Lark, who thought she’d be a good fit for a project she was working on to recognize the 70 Dearborn residents who gave their lives during the Vietnam War.

As it turned out, Kerr has always had an interest in the United States military, and jumped at the chance to help Lark with the project.

“I don’t have a family member serving right now, but I’ve always been interested in the issues facing soldiers,” said Kerr. “I thought that this would be interesting, and I’ve learned a lot about the soldiers. And most of them went to Dearborn schools.”

For one class period, Kerr sends out surveys to family members of the soldiers, compiles information, conducts research and creates biographies about the lives, school activities, families and interests of each soldier. The project will be completed in May, and each soldier will be honored by community groups that march in the city’s Memorial Day parade.

Key to Awesomeness: Lark has been supervising Kerr as an independent study student for several months. She said Kerr’s work has been invaluable. “She’s a wonderful young lady, and she’s worked so hard to make this project a reality,” she said. “I may not let her go at the end of the year.”

Lark said Kerr is currently helping to match soldiers to groups that represent something the soldiers enjoyed or participated in. For example, the Dearborn Animal Shelter will march in honor of a soldier who enjoyed training dogs.

Kerr is the daughter of Linda and Kevin Kerr or Dearborn. When she’s not busy seeking recognition for Dearborn’s veterans, Kerr is a member of Edsel Ford’s drama club and field hockey team.

After graduation, she will attend Michigan State University. Though Kerr has not officially declared her major, she is leaning toward studying psychology, possibly with a specialization in treating military personnel for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Do you know a Dearborn student who has been inspired by recent or past events? Do you know a student that spends time seeking out knowledge about topics that may not be apparent to other teens? Does that student’s hard work and initiative rival the most motivated of adults? If so, we’d like to hear from you.  Everyone deserves a little attention, and we want to tell these stories.

E-mail your Whiz Kid nominations to Editor Jessica Carreras at Jessica.carreras@patch.com. Please include the name, age, school, achievement and key to awesomeness, as well as a photo. Then come back every Wednesday for our Whiz Kid spotlight. You never know who may be smiling at you from the computer screen.