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Gulliver Prep Senior John Schappert is the valedictorian of the Class of 2022. He is Gulliver’s Silver Knight nominee for Mathematics and also a National Merit Scholar winner.
His major community service project was Geometry Aid, a virtual reality simulation he developed to help kids learn geometry. Geometry Aid was named the winner of the Congressional App Challenge for Florida District 27, marking the fifth win in a row for Gulliver in the challenge.
“I developed Geometry Aid at the request of FIU professor Dr. Mario Eraso,” he says. “He was looking for a student to create an interactive simulation to help kids learn 3D geometry. I signed up.”
In addition to being a professor, Dr. Eraso is the STEM Outreach Coordinator at FIU.
“He uses Geometry Aid for outreach sessions with underserved students,” Schappert says.
“He has the students learn and explore 3D geometry. We are working to create a second version and we hope to pitch this learning tool to Miami-Dade Public Schools for use all throughout the county.”
Schappert says that virtual reality allows students to gain a new perspective.
“They can go inside the shapes and see information about their properties,” he says.
Along with the computer science course he’s taken at Gulliver, he’s taken advanced programming classes at the University of Miami, including a graduate level class called Computability, Complexity and Algorithms.
He’ll continue to study computer science at Duke University.
At Gulliver, he is the president and co-founder of Zeta Omicron. The club collected used computers, refurbished them and donated them to underserved communities. In the last year they have repaired and donated 25 computers.
“It’s amazing to see these kids getting exposure to computer science and getting the tools that allow them to explore it further,” he says. “We also donate computers to other people who are in need. We have donated them to victims of human trafficking and to other organizations.”
Zeta Omicron members also teach coding classes at Breakthrough Miami. Schappert has taught a mandatory coding class at Gulliver.
“I was one of the people who designed several lessons for the Gulliver Coding Fundamentals class,” he says. “I taught it before I designed the lessons my freshman year.
I wanted to improve the curriculum to make it more engaging, so I taught it again sophomore year using my new curriculum.”
Schappert is a member of the Science National Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta, Rho Kappa, Psi Alpha and the Japanese National Honor Society.
He’s also co-vice president of the Math Club.
“It’s for members who are interested in and passionate about math,” he says. “We do bi-weekly challenge problems. I create the challenge problems. We sent out students to teacher tutorials and get community service for helping teachers.”
They also organize guest speaker opportunities.
In his quest for knowledge, Schappert interned at Shiver Entertainment, a Miami-based video development company.
“I did it for two summers – before junior year and the summer before senior year,” he says.
“I was working full time as a software engineer intern.”
For fun, Schappert scuba dives.
“We do a lot of diving vacations,” he says. “I’m in the scuba club for Gulliver and I’ve done some clean-up dives.”
The club members go to the Florida Keys to pick-up trash.
Because of his passion for the ocean and preserving the environment, he developed an app called Dumpster Diver, an educational game meant to teach kids about the dangers of ocean pollution.
“I’m always looking for opportunities to use my programming skills to better the world,” he says.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
