St. John Neumann graduate Daniel Martin 'all about learning'

Editor’s note: This is one in a series of Naples Daily News stories on Graduates of Distinction, who are selected by staff at the high school. 

Daniel Martin keeps a color-coded spreadsheet of the classes he plans to take at Georgia Tech. Well, it's part plan and part wish list of a perfect schedule.

To look at all the classes, all the hours packed into a semester, is to think Martin is joking.

But if anyone can pull it off, Martin can, said Andrew Sweeney, a mathematics teacher at St. John Neumann High School in Golden Gate.

"Daniel is just one who pursues knowledge for the sake of knowledge," Sweeney said. "He's all about learning.

"He always has difficult questions that can put a teacher on the spot. Those are the ones I love answering. He almost tests his teachers to make sure they know what they're talking about, because he knows what he's talking about."

More:2018 Graduates of Distinction

Martin will finish high school with a heap of college credits, having taken 18 Advanced Placement courses, many of them on his own time outside St. John Neumann and in addition to his normal school day. Already fluent in English and Spanish, Martin is learning Mandarin.  

He is one of the school's top tennis players and is active in cross-country, where Sweeney has helped coach him.

"It takes a rare breed to want to run 6 or 7 miles a day, but he's a determined young man," Sweeney said. "We don't offer AP Chinese here, so he went and took it on his own.

"He has boundless potential and has got the world ahead of him."

Martin wants to study computer science and mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech and keep up his Chinese courses.

"I just love coding, and then engineering has always been my passion, building things," Martin said.

Martin is naturally competitive, but motivation in academics always has been especially easy for him.

"I have friends, and I know a lot of people go through school and kind of see it as an obstacle to overcome," he said. "But when I learn, especially in physics and math and computer science, it's just something I enjoy. I get home so excited to do a program for AP computer science."

After a grueling AP exam schedule, Martin will take it relatively easy this summer. He wants to learn how to cook for himself, read some books and work for his mom to raise some money.