Senior Zoe Van Wirt has been one of the first high school seniors accepted into the Air Force Academy. Van Wirt is disciplined with school maintaining over a 4.0 grade point average; however, she is excited about her future at the academy.

“I was extremely excited to receive my acceptance. It was nice to get rewarded for working so hard on the application,” Van Wirt said.

The application process was much more difficult than a normal college application because every applicant had to go through the nomination process.

“It was a very long process. I started it in March and finished in October of 2011,” Van Wirt said.

Van Wirt does not know if any other students from Lewis-Palmer have been accepted, but she was one of the first students to be accepted so others may still be waiting for answers.

Van Wirt is also involved in springboard diving, the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony and exercising everyday in order to stay in shape for the Academy.

“I have rehearsal for youth symphony once a week for about three hours. I dive three times a week and I work out every day,” Van Wirt said.

She sometimes finds it difficult to manage school work and activities, but she finds ways to get all of her work done.

“It is difficult, but I am very good at time management now,” Van Wirt said.