Senior Steven Were, just Steve as he prefers, or even “Big Steve” as most of Oak Park knows him by, is not your average student. It really doesn’t matter what you call him because he’s a big guy with an even bigger future.

Were is involved in football, National Honor Society and OP Fresh. He keeps himself busy, though, by getting awarded the title of Outstanding Participant in the 2015 National Achievement Scholarship Program.

His score was among the top 5 percentof all the students who also took the test. It was for the PSAT/NMSQT, or Pre-SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test taken back in September.

A little background on the test: it is an SAT test that can qualify a student for more scholarship money the higher he/she scores on it.

“I expected to do well on it, but not this well,” Were said. “I’m glad I got a good score though since it basically gives me a bunch of money for college.”

Well basically is right. In fact, the test is set up like a competition: whoever gets the highest score wins the most money.

Although he didn’t advance in the competition, he came very close and the benefits for him have been great. The PSAT/NMSQT included his name in a roster along with other students who did as well as him and sent the list to about 1,500 U.S. colleges and universities.

Because of this, Were has been accepted to every college he has applied to and all of them have given him a lot of scholarship money. In addition to that, he has even gotten scholarship money from schools he did not apply to. Also, being a minority has gotten him even more money.

Were isn’t taking his last year off before college, but talk about a senior year.

Standing at 6 foot 4 and weighing more than 220 pounds, it’s easy to see how he earned his nickname of “Big Steve.” He isn’t a hard guy to miss in the hallways so the next time you see him, be sure to give him a big congratulations.

“It’s a great feeling to know that the hard work I’ve put in during my past three years at Oak Park have paid off.”