After earning 19 fives on AP tests, researching at Portland State University, and still finding time to hang out with friends, James Siderius, senior, has a wide array of accomplishments for a 17-year-old. Siderius is looking forward to a bright future when he attends Princeton University next fall.

Currently, Siderius is taking AP English, AP European History, AP Spanish, Teacher’s Assistant for AP Economics and an economics class at PSU.

“My favorite class is definitely the economics course at PSU,” Siderius said. “I’m really interested in econ, and there’s also math involved, which I really enjoy.”

According to Siderius, he is very interested in economics, and he hopes to someday find a career in that field.

“I hope to be a financial adviser to a firm or maybe work for the government,” Siderius said. “I’m more into microeconomics, so I want to work with more specific companies rather than work in macroeconomics which deals more with economic policies.”

Another career path that Siderius is considering is a career in teaching. In order to assist him in this, he has taken on an intensive Teacher’s Assistant job in which he helps Tonya Dailey teach her AP Economics class.

“As teaching assistant, I give lectures, make lessons, design activities and help the students out,” Siderius said. “I thought this would be a good experience because I might want to be a professor.”

According to Gabriel Weitz, junior, Siderius is very helpful in the class.

“James is always walking around and giving us tips and information about each topic,” Weitz said. “He also frequently leads the class through new chapters and whatnot. Plus he’s a bro.”

This fall, Siderius will be studying economics at Princeton. He received a scholarship of between $35,000 and $40,000 a year, meaning that his parents will only have to pay about $20,000 a year for his education. His second choice for college was Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which offered him $10,000 a year.

Along with his hard work at school, Siderius also works on projects outside of school.

“I spend a lot of time doing research work at PSU modeling economic systems,” Siderius said.

Last summer, Siderius took chemistry, economics and linear algebra courses at PSU. He also worked in the PSU Engineering Lab on computer software development.

“Basically, I took binary data that was encrypted and changed it into something that was much easier to understand to make things easier,” Siderius said.

Another program that Siderius continuously participates in is the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. He has done a different project every year of high school, and he has won numerous awards each time.

“Every year I do something new for ISEF,” Siderius said. “I won the NOAA ‘Taking the Pulse of the Planet Award’ for three years in a row and I’ve also won various naval research awards, along with others.”

When Siderius isn’t working on academics, he takes time to hang out with his friends and relax.

“Usually [my friends and I] will watch a movie, play golf or, if we can get enough people, play Frisbee,” Siderius said. “We also like to go to Portland and get pancakes, or just do whatever.”

Siderius is also a very good friend, on top of being very intelligent, according to Tyler Griffin, junior.

“He’s a really nice guy, and he’s really smart,” Griffin said. “He gives great hugs.”