Whiz Kid: Emma McGeehan Kirby Champions Sea Life

Each week, Patch spotlights young people in the Birmingham community who are successful, talented and just plain awesome. Today we introduce this latest Whiz Kid:

Emma McGeehan Kirby

• Age: 16
  
• School:
• Accomplishments: Emma received the Earth Watch scholarship award. She will be working with scientists studying mammals in Nova Scotia. She’ll be there for the first two weeks of July. Her passionate involvement in the Sierra Club led to her nomination (Roeper nominates one high school student a year). Emma was required to write three essays, including one about an invention to improve the environment, for which she described creating a “smart net” for more sustainable fishing.
• Key to awesomeness: "Saving species and conservation should be important to all young people," Emma wrote. "My love for sea life has made it easy to fight for their survival."

Do you know a special kid in the community who deserves applause because he volunteers after school? Or, maybe your daughter's science club challenges how we think about the environment? Or, perhaps your son's team won its first game in three years. Everyone deserves a little attention, and we want to tell these stories.

Email nominations to Editor Laura Houser at laura.houser@patch.com, provide the information given above and include a photo with names and ages. Then, come back every Tuesday for our Whiz Kid spotlight; you never know who's up next.