Erie teenager Elena Prenovitz spent Friday in New Jersey at Princeton University, shadowing students at classes to see if she wanted to apply to the Ivy League school.

GoErie.com
April 25, 2016
By Gerry Weiss

The 16-year-old junior at Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy has already visited Georgetown University and the University of Michigan, and she was impressed with both.

So goes the prestigious road when you’re a straight-A student, take five Advanced Placement courses plus two foreign language classes, and are a varsity tennis player ranked regionally by the United States Tennis Association in your age group.

Elena’s mind on Friday — Earth Day — was also fittingly on the two environmental projects she is coordinating at Erie schools in May.

She will be conducting a tree survey with kindergartners at JoAnna Connell School, 1820 E. 38th St., and planning the exact date for that this week.

She also will be coordinating a campus cleanup event at Harding School, 820 Lincoln Ave., with about 50 fifth-graders and some faculty on May 2.

Those projects are part of Elena’s role on Keep America Beautiful’s National Youth Advisory Council. She is one of only eight teens appointed to the council, and she was selected out of more than 200 nationwide applicants.