OREM — Soren Siebach sounds like the classic egghead.
The Orem High School junior aced the ACT assessment with a perfect score of 36 — one of only 58 in the nation to do so.
Siebach also came close to achieving a perfect score on the SAT, another college-entrance exam. And, of course, he's earned a 4.0 grade point average.
Siebach, who plays the bassoon for the Utah Valley Youth Symphony, has racked up honors. He won the Walter C. Orem Award given by Orem's City Council for outstanding citizenship, represented Orem High School at the American Legion Boys State event and is now headed to Washington, D.C., for a national meet.
Learning aside, the 17-year-old Siebach is also interested in music, a good time and disco skating. You can find him almost every Saturday night at a skating rink, rocking to disco tunes.
Siebach, a tennis ace, and his buddies, Matthew Rowley and Andrew Thorne, are the fast-moving guys in the retro clothes bought at a second-hand shop.
"I grew up listening to Earth, Wind & Fire and Gloria Gaynor," Siebach said.
Thorne, who has known Siebach since his sophomore year, calls his friend "rather eccentric."
"He thinks differently. He's an intelligent person, but that's just one side of him," Thorne says, "He's one of the most fun guys I've ever met."
Siebach is the third of five children, the only boy in a family of girls, and he thinks his parents deserve the credit for turning him into a good student.
"Everybody else in my family is a good student. My parents tried to help us take it seriously, and my older sisters set a good example."
Siebach doesn't see himself as extraordinary — but he doesn't think like an average teen.
"I'm actually thinking right now of going into business, becoming an economist, he said. "School? I'd like to go to Harvard, Princeton or Yale."
"He's so brilliant, but he's not a nerd," said his economics teacher, Neal Wakefield. "He's got a remarkable personality, always very upbeat, very positive. He made me laugh more than anybody else in the class."
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