Editor’s note: The Auburn Reporter salutes some of the best graduating seniors from each of the school district’s four high schools. The top boy and girl graduates were selected by their respective schools.

Erin Williams

A teacher in sixth grade helped Erin Williams decide what she wanted to do with her life.

“He made this huge cell with DNA that everybody walked through, and I just loved it,” Williams recalled.

From that day on, Williams signed up for every science biology course school had to offer, weaving them into a punishing schedule.

In addition to her classes, she participated in a dizzying array of activities.

And when it came time to apply to schools, admissions people took notice.

Next year the Auburn High School senior will attend University of San Diego, the first step toward the Ph.d and a medical degree. Her goal is genetics research.

“I think I want to go into cancer research. I want to help people not have cancer or get rid of cancer,” Williams said.

The University of San Diego is offering her $17,500 a year to attend.

Williams has always been a busy, driven girl.

She was fifth runner-up in the 2009 Miss Auburn Scholarship Pageant, earning a $2,700 scholarship.

In her senior year, Williams ran cross country on the track team, played basketball, served as president of the school’s Honor Society, was involved with Troy Crew — it helps with freshmen orientation — played saxophone in the wind and jazz ensembles, sang in the chamber choir, and played sax for the jazz choir.

Time away from school? What’s that?

“The time I’m not here is really small,” said Williams. “Actually, I am here almost every weekend. I have band competition, I am president of the Honor Society, and it does stuff here on the weekend. I am also vice president of my class, so I am involved with just about everything.”

It should come as no surprise then that Williams also is phenomenally organized

“I have a scheduler, I kind of live by my scheduler, my scheduler’s packed,” Williams said, patting the chunky article in question.

Williams loves her studies; the more brain bending the class the better.

“I’ve always found that my favorite classes each year were my hardest classes. The big one last year was advanced placement U.S. history. It was really hard, we had like a test per week. But the teacher went off on tangents that are really interesting.”

Her greatest influences, she said, have been her parents, Patricia Read-Williams and Matthew Williams, “who supported me in everything. She also single out her and her cross country track coach and French teacher Gregory Isham.

She’ll cop to a few quirks.

“I ask dumb questions, I guess. I have a lisp. I can’t say anything that ends in -ing, -ang or -ung. I think I’m kind of a perfectionist to the point where it’s bad, and I’m really motivated to do a lot to the point where I can annoy people by it,” said Williams. “And sometimes I overbook my self, and don’t give myself time to just breathe. I really wish I didn’t do that,” Williams said.

Williams said she is ready for the next chapter in her life.

“I’m actually excited to leave and try something new. I’ve lived here my whole life. One thing that’s kind of sad is that I will never walk down these halls again as a student,” Williams said. “That’s kind of weird.”

Bret Renschler

From the time he was a little boy, Bret Renschler couldn’t wait for Seafair, when he’d crane his neck, look up at the Blue Angels and dream of the day he would be a U.S. fighter pilot.

‘Nothing cooler than having your own hot rod in the sky,” declared the 18-year-old Auburn High School senior.

In the end, Renschler opted to be one of the guys who engineers and designs planes.

“I realized that being in the military is a little bit much of a commitment as far as how many years you have to re-up for. So I kind of redirected my goals toward aeronautical engineering. It’s the same field,” Renschler said.

To get a little taste of what that would be like, Renschler participated last summer in the Washington Aerospace Scholars Program, which demanded about six months of online work, followed by a week at the Museum of Flight, a mock mission to Mars and a tour of Boeing and the UW.

This fall, the brilliant Auburn High graduate will begin his studies at the University of Washington.

His Washington Scholars Award will provide four years of full-paid tuition. A $2,000 scholarship from the College of Engineering will help out, too.

Renschler has been involved in the ASB since he was a freshman, and was senior class treasurer this year. He is an Honors Society member with a 4.0 grade point average. He’s been a member of Troy Crew since he was a sophomore. A baseball player for four years, he manned first base for the varsity squad this year, earning honorable mention from the South Puget Sound League as a utility player.

Renchsler’s best quality, he said, is determination.

“If I want something, if I have a goal I want to accomplish, even though it might be hard I keep at it, like keeping a 4.0 through high school. I wasn’t going to let that go. There were a couple moments when I worried about the 4.0 last year in the advanced placement classes. You know, you get a B on a test you freak out a bit. But I always focused to stay on top of it.”

His parents are Kirk and Sandy Renschler of Auburn. He has a 25-year-old sister, Jennie.

“My mom has helped me as far as accomplishing my goals,” Renschler said. “My dad’s always been kind of the influence of how I should act and what I should do. I have a teacher at school named Elizabeth Coccroft. She’s the junior class advisor. She helped me become a better leader in our school.”

But with Renschler, the conversation usually returns to flight.

“If I could do it without being stuck in the military, I would definitely be a fighter pilot, there’s nothing cooler. Having that hot rod in the air, it’s just a total dream for me. It’s just little impractical,” Renschler said.

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COMMENCEMENT

• Auburn High School, 4 p.m., Sunday, Auburn Memorial Stadium

• Graduation class: 325