By Sarah Boon, Ballard High School ASB vice president

Ballard senior Jimena Diaz has been working in overdrive to achieve her goals all throughout high school.

Her extensive effort has paid off and she has been accepted early decision to Dartmouth College.

She has been president of Key Club, the treasurer for the National Honor Society and during her junior year she was vice president of composting for Ballard Earth Service Corps. She is also a mentor for freshmen as a Link Crew Leader.

Diaz stays involved at Ballard through sports as well. She has played tennis all four years of high school and played soccer for two years. During her sophomore year she received the most improved award for tennis.

Diaz has been recognized in other ways at Ballard as well. She received an honorable mention at the Student Bio Expo her junior year, and she has earned the Above and Beyond Service Learning Award.

She has been working with Rainier Scholars, a nonprofit college prep program for minorities, since before high school.

She had an internship at Seattle Children’s Hospital last summer, and she has worked with New Horizons, a teen homeless shelter.

When Diaz is not serving her community in such positive ways, she likes to play tennis, practice photography, and spend time outdoors.

Diaz’s future goals include possibly double majoring in neuroscience and ecology, earning a doctorate in ecology or conservation biology, and traveling to South America to work in the Amazon to improve conservation.

Jaysen Niedermeyer is a senior at Ballard and has been committed to the Maritime Academy all throughout high school.

In addition to being an Eagle Scout, he is the vice president of the Maritime Club and was voted student of the quarter in the science department.

Niedermeyer dedicates a lot of his free time to working with Boy Scouts. He is even a summer camp counselor for Boy Scouts during the summer.

He also enjoys baking and playing soccer.

To continue his education in the maritime field, Niedermeyer has worked at NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center as an intern studying ocean acidification of the Puget Sound.

Niedermeyer invests a lot of his time into travel as well. He recently visited Peru on a trip with Ballard High School, and he plans to visit Thailand with a group of Ballard students as well.

He is in the Ballard High School musical, "The Secret Garden," which will show in March.

Niedermeyer loves to spend time outdoors and participate in various activities. such as skiing, camping, hiking and scuba diving.

After high school, Niedermeyer plans to attend the University of Washington School of Oceanography and major in marine biology. His goal is to study abyssal, or benthic, sea life and ultimately focus on giant squid.