Current Conditions
31°F - CLOUDY
Volunteering a must for Ephrata senior
Teen of the Week
Intelligencer Journal
Lancaster New Era
Nov 21, 2009 10:02 EST
Ephrata
By JOAN KERN, Correspondent

Media Center

Related Topics

Related Stories

Bookmark and Share
Ephrata High School senior Brian Lynch doesn't hesitate when asked to name his favorite song.

The answer is on the tip of his tongue: John Mayer's "Waiting on the World to Change."

"He wants people to step up and do something, not just wait," the 17-year-old said.

And that's just what the outgoing, easy-going Brian does.

Recently voted most likely to succeed by his senior class, Brian was honored by state Sen. Mike Brubaker as 2009 volunteer of the year.

In 10th grade, he was selected as an ambassador to the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Foundation Seminar.

"They value volunteerism," said the teen, who describes himself as "friendly, respectful, trustworthy and dependable."

He has stayed involved with HOBY, volunteering hundreds of hours, including regularly at the Ephrata Public Library book shop.

A member of the board of trustees for HOBY of Central Pennsylvania, he serves as editor of the newsletter and on the awards committee.

At school, he is a member of the Leo Club, a high school Lions Club, and the Audio Visual Club, helping teachers set up technical equipment. He is the lighting technician for the fall plays and spring musicals.

Brian ranks third in a class of about 300 students and has a 4.26 grade-point average.

He is treasurer of the National Honor Society and president of the German National Honor Society.

Last year, he took advanced placement calculus AB, statistics and language and composition. This year, he is enrolled in calculus BC and economics.

Brian hopes to attend Bucknell University or Penn State and is almost certain he wants to be a chemical engineer.

With math and science as his favorite subjects, he entered the Lancaster County Science Fair the past three years and plans to again this school year.

Last year, his project was on enhanced oil recovery, an attempt to bring down the cost of oil by eliminating one of the four elements used in the process.

What he found was that all four are necessary. But he had fun.

"It was neat," he said.

A team player, Brian has been a member of the school's Quiz Bowl team for two years.

"It's a neat experience," he said. "It's interesting to see the questions. Anything can come up, from calculus to sports trivia."

He began playing golf when he was "really young, perhaps 3 or 4 years old," and has played on the school team throughout high school, serving as co-captain this year.

"It's as much physical as mental," he said.

Even more than the challenge of the game, he enjoyed the camaraderie of the team.

"I loved it, meeting all the guys on the team," he said. "Practice was a nice relaxer. Everybody wanted to get better and be a team player. That makes it much more fun, not to be so competitive. We all joked around and just had a good time."

He works at High Sports in Lititz, running the go-carts in the summer and at the car wash the rest of the year.

For the last four years, he has delivered the weekly Ephrata Review in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood.

In his spare time, he enjoys following the Phillies and the Eagles, reading about sports and "hanging out with friends and family."

His extended family resides in the Philadelphia area, but he has lived in Ephrata since he was 3 weeks old.

Brian is the son of Bernie and Eva Lynch, of Ephrata, and has a brother Tim, 16, and a sister Caitlin, 14.


Top Ads