Name: Billy Morris - Age 16

School: Miller Place High School - 11th Grade

Morris has been taking honors and Advanced Placement (AP) classes since entering high school and has been on the high honor roll for every quarter of his high school career.

He has received the Award for General Academic Excellence for two years and the Orchestra Award as a sophomore. He is a member of the National Honor Society and is an excellent speaker of Spanish, having traveled to Mexico and Peru with his family.

The junior is actively involved in the school's music program, playing the upright bass in the Orchestra, the electric bass in the Jazz Ensemble, piano, guitar and ukelele. He was a member of the pit band for last's year's drama production of Fiddler on the Roof and has been participating in the New York State Student Music Association (NYSSMA) competitions for years. He was selected for the All County ensembles for the Long Island String Festival Association (LISFA), Suffolk County Music Educators Association (SCMEA) and the New York State Council of Administrators of Music Education (NYSCAME).

Morris has volunteered his time to work at the Welcome Inn Soup Kitchen at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Port Jefferson Station. At the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Stony Brook, he is one of the two youth members on the Board of Trustees. He is an active member of their youth group and its related Metro District, where he has participated in 'The Midnight Run', a program to directly supply homeless people of New York City with food and clothing on the coldest nights of the year. He has also volunteered as a mentor at the youth group's junior high division's events, as well as babysitting in the nursery during Sunday services.

Although unsure as to what career path to study in college, he plans to continue with his involvement in music programs in college and beyond.