Carl Seelhoff has overcome many challenges during his life; through these difficulties, Seelhoff has gained victories, like being valedictorian of his graduating class.

Seelhoff’s 4.3 GPA is a result of taking many AP classes, a decision he made keeping college in mind.“I wanted an extra challenge, and I wanted to get ready for what college is going to bring. I know that’s going to be tough, so I want to prepare myself mentally and for the physical workload.”  For other students, Seelhoff’s advice would be, “Challenge yourself to take AP classes. Don’t slack off, and don’t push yourself too hard.”

Besides studying hard to get good grades, Seelhoff is a member of the school’s Robotics team and Academic League. “I want to go into the engineering field, so I thought I’d go into Robotics,” Seelhoff said.

Seelhoff wants to work in the prosthetic industry since he himself has a prosthetic leg. Overcoming his disease “has given me a whole lot of opportunities that I never thought I’d have, and it’s really just changed my life for the better. All the things I’ve done through high school I probably wouldn’t have done if this hadn’t happened to me,” Seelhoff said.

Seelhoff traveled to Washington, D. C. four times to lobby for insurance fairness for amputees. In addition, he helped prosthetic limb companies win grants for research and development.

Seelhoff’s first choice college is MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology]: “It’s one of the best in the world … They are … heavy in the prosthetic industry.”

So far, Seelhoff has been accepted to MIT and Georgia Tech.