This Week's Whiz Kid: Olivia Belliveau

Name: Olivia Belliveau, 12.

School: Wooster Middle School.

Achievements:

Olivia is an Executive Board Member of Wooster’s Student Leadership Council. In this capacity she organizes monthly student activities such as teen nights, and fundraisers to benefit her school, as well as Stratford organizations.

Miss Belliveau is also a member of the Usher’s Club, which is responsible for guiding parents and visitors to Wooster Middle School during events. Olivia is currently training to be the president for the 2011-2012 year.

In 2010, Olivia received a presidential award for her academic achievements, which was awarded by President Obama to 6th and 8th grade students with high academic achievements. Olivia is a first honors Honor Roll student. In 5th grade, Olivia was one of the top 10 students at State Levels for the Spelling Bee. In 6th grade, she won for her school!

As a member of the after-school program CLASP (Creative Learning After School Program), Olivia was asked by a language arts teacher to run a poetry club for 7th and 8th grade students from October to December 2010.

Olivia is also an avid poetry and literary fiction writer. Her poetry has been published in multiple editions of Creative Communications, a Spring and Fall publication of creative works by students Kindergarten through 12th grade.

In 2010 she won the Young Writers of America Anthology Award. Independently, Olivia writes novels for children between the ages of 8 and 12 years old and has been working on acquiring a literary agent. She has written four novels so far.

In 5th grade Olivia won a PTA Reflections National Literary Award, and won first place in the state equivalent in 6th and 7th grade as well.

As a member of the Stratford Library’s Youth Review Board, Olivia meets with a group of similarly aged students and library representatives once a month to discuss the books they are reading. Olivia notes that this group is not only fun as the students are able to provide insight into and recommend the books they are interested in reading, but she has also seen the participation and confidence of otherwise reserved students increase over time

In 5th grade, Olivia was selected as a Discovery Girls contributor, her favorite magazine. As part of a group of 5th grade girls, Olivia spent the day in New York City where they contributed to the Connecticut girls feature. She continues to enjoy their magazine and receive emails from them regularly.

Since she was 4-years-old, Olivia has had ballet instruction and more recently also practices modern dancing at the Performing Art Center of Connecticut in Trumbull, CT. She is a member of the Dance Corps in which she meets every other week to study choreography and participate in dance education field trips. Combining her love of dance and poetry, Olivia recently wrote a poem about dance to which her teacher has since choreographed a dance. Olivia will be performing on April 29th and 30th in Sleeping Beauty.

Olivia takes private piano instruction with Addie Chase. She has played since she was 4 years old.

In her free summer time, Olivia gives back to the community as a volunteer at Boothe Memorial Park where she helps to maintain the park grounds. Olivia hopes to volunteer at the Stratford Library this summer.

Key to Awesomeness:

Olivia tells us that she tries to “fill [her] life with things that [she] really love[s] doing. Through doing the things [she] enjoy[s, she is] motivated to work harder and do the best that [she] can!” When it comes to dancing, Olivia is motivated by the environment dance itself creates.