H EADLINES
High School Senior Wins Congressional Award
Gold Medal for Public Service
L OCA L
ANDY GOTLIEB | JE MANAGING EDITOR
OLIVER OTTO LEARNED
fi rsthand the power that a
mentor can have while tutoring
a disadvantaged fourth grader
from a nearby charter school
in math.

“I was able to turn this kid
from not wanting to go to
school ... to him becoming on
one of the better math students
in his grade,” Otto said.

A senior at Germantown
Friends School, Otto recently
received a Congressional Award
Gold Medal for performing more
than 800 hours of voluntary
public service — many hours of
tutoring — personal development
and physical fi tness, as well as
planning and going on an in-depth
“exploration/expedition.” Germantown Friends math
teacher David Mraz said the
honor was well-deserved.

“Th e personal connection is
at the heart of what he does,”
Mraz said. “I’m not surprised
he would win an award.”
Otto, 17, of Abington was
one of 478 youths nationwide
honored on Sept. 26 by Congress
in a virtual ceremony that
included video messages from
Speaker of the House Nancy
Pelosi and Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell, as
well as interviews with former
Exponent journalist Wolf
Blitzer, U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi
(R-WY) and former football star
Emmitt Smith.

Otto said the couple hours of
tutoring each week at Mastery
Charter School has helped him
understand how he can be a
positive catalyst in someone’s life.

“It wasn’t so much about
developing myself as it was
about making a change in the
community,” he said.

Mraz said Otto is eff ective
because he’s easygoing, sees
what his pupils need, develops
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Oliver Otto displays
his Congressional
Award Gold Medal.

Courtesy of Oliver Otto
a plan he can implement and
then explains math concepts at
a level they’ll understand.

“He has such a way with the
kids there,” he said. “He’s kind
of a mentor as well as a tutor.”
Aside from the tutoring,
Otto’s a member of the
school’s basketball team, does
graphics art design and layout
for the school newspaper and
yearbook and works with his
younger sister Amelia on a
club called Big Sibs that tutors
within Germantown Friends.

Outside of school, he works
with the Pennsylvania Shade
Tree Commission planting
trees in parks around Abington.

He estimated that he’s planted
30 trees on his own and more
than 200 in the last four years
as part of a group.

Th rough his family, Otto,
who is a member of Beth
Sholom Congregation, has
learned art appreciation and is a
fan of Dutch abstract artist Piet
Mondrian. Th at was nurtured
by a trip a couple years back to
London and Paris to visit the
multiple famed museums there.

Although Otto’s generally
quiet, he shows his intensity
on the basketball court, Mraz
said. Even when a broken wrist
kept him from playing last
year, Otto stayed connected to
the team by keeping statistics
during practice, helping the
coach to build game plans.

While Mraz said Otto could
be a gift ed teacher, Otto, who
hopes to attend the University
of Pennsylvania next fall, said
he plans to major in American
history and eventually pursue a
career in some sort of contrac-
tual law.

“He is thoughtful, polite,
considerate — everything you’d
want your child to be,” Mraz
said. ●
agotlieb@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0797
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