Academy names Gray teen January STAR student of month

Zion Marsters Submitted photo

Zion Marsters, a grade 12 student from Gray, has been named the Maine Connections Academy’s January STAR Student of the Month.

The STAR Student recognition is awarded to an academy scholar who represents the school’s values and spirit.

Even though he’s in high school, Marsters already has more college learning experience than some college students. That’s because, for the past three years, he’s been taking courses for college credit while attending the academy, a full-time online school for students statewide in grades seven to 12, according to a news release from the Scarborough-based academy.

“I’ve always really enjoyed learning and found out about the opportunity to take college credits early — once I was in 10th grade,” Marsters explained.

He started with general education subjects — English, history, psychology — as a high school sophomore, before progressing to more advanced courses, such as physics and accounting. Some of the classes have been dual-enrollment courses that offer college credit while being taught by an academy teacher.

In total, Marsters will have 33 credits from the University of Maine at Fort Kent, University of Maine at Machias and University of Southern Maine on his resume going into graduation this June.

Beyond his education track record, he is also recognized as January’s STAR Student because of his commitments outside of the virtual classroom.

He’s a shift leader at the local Dairy Queen. He also participates in the school’s baking club, which meets online every few weeks to watch videos of recipes that they then try out themselves — sharing the finished products through photos and conversation.

He recently put his culinary skills to use with a bake sale fundraiser to support his upcoming trip to Guatemala. He’ll be taking a mission trip with the Greater Portland Christian School after enrolling in a Spanish class through the school. The bake sale raised nearly $600.

Marsters plans to attend Cedarville University in Ohio for electrical engineering in the fall.