Like any middle school student, Slava Butkovich loves playing computer games.
Except, this Sunny Vale Middle School eighth grader likes playing historical computer games. Games like “Civilization,” where she can start a country and watch it grow into a world power.
“I like to start with a little country and make it more powerful,” she said with a smile on her face. “Like in ‘Civilization,’ it starts where you have nothing but a settler and a warrior, and you have to build a whole country around that.”
But that is where the similarities between Slava and most other 13-year-olds end. This past year, Slava has racked up several academic honors in a variety of subjects. One of her biggest accomplishments was earning a 32 composite score on the ACT. As part of Duke University’s Seventh Grade Talent Search program, gifted seventh graders have the opportunity to take the popular college-entrance exam.
Slava’s score places her in the 99th percentile for college-bound high school students as well as the 99th percentile for seventh grade Duke TIP participants. In recognition of her score, she has earned her first college scholarship, which allows her to take one summer college class.
“When she came out (from taking the test), she was the only one smiling,” said Eric Butkovich, Slava’s father. “When we got the scores, her mother was screaming and crying. I didn’t know if it was good or bad news. We were really happy.”
Slava said the exam was easy and covered a lot of areas including science, mathematics and social studies. She said in the science portion she did not have to have any outside knowledge of the subject, only have the ability to read and understand the graphs and information given.
“At first, when they were talking about it, I was nervous,” she said. “But after, I was happy because it wasn’t as hard as I thought.”
But Slava’s achievements do not end there. She also competed with other Sunny Vale Middle School students in the Kansas City regional KCATM math contest in March, placing first in several categories in the eighth grade division. Among those were algebra, geometry and number sense, which uses no calculator.
“Ever since she was really young, we would teach her things, and she would remember it,” said Maria Butkovich, Slava’s mother. “In first and second grade she was doing middle school and high school work. She has always excelled in math.”
