Patch Whiz Kid of the Week: Joseph Pham

Each week, Marple Newtown Patch will seek suggestions from readers for individual kids, youth groups, teens, and even sports teams that wow us with their accomplishments. This week we highlight Joseph Pham, a fifth-grade student at St. Pius X, who placed first in a writing contest.

Patch Whiz Kid of the Week: Joseph Pham

Whiz Kid's Age: 11

Whiz Kid's School:

Whiz Kid's Accomplishment: Joseph Pham placed first in the Newtown Square Women’s Club Writing Contest. This year's question was: "What historical place would you like to visit and why?"

Whiz Kid's Key to Awesomeness: "When our teacher brought the essay up, I did it ant turned it in but I didn't know I was going to win," recalled Joseph about winning the essay contest, who immediately told his two younger sisters of his win the day he found out. "It feels awesome."

According to Joseph, he wrote about Valley Forge National Historical Park because "George Washington was there and he launched a surprise attack on the British. I thought that would be pretty cool to visit."

Though he considers himself more of a numbers kind of guy (his favorite subject is math), and social studies may not be his best subject, Joseph enjoys writing about history on the side.

"I like fractions," shared Joseph about why he enjoyed math. "It requires all of your skills to do it–you have to add and subtract and it's easy to multiply but kind of hard to divide."

Joseph, who has been attending St. Pius X since preschool, is enjoying being one of the "big kids" of the lower school. "In my opinion, it's one of the best years of school ever."

Other than math, Joseph's other passion is baseball. And his favorite baseball team? The Phillies of course. "I like Hunter Pence for offense and Roy Holliday for defense," said Joseph matter-of-factly. He hopes to play on a baseball team someday.

Though he's only 11 years old, Joseph has already though about what he'd like to be someday. "I want to be an engineer. It just seems kind of cool because I want to design stuff...like a car engineer and I want to fix stuff."

Joseph also confirmed he has visited Valley Forge Park twice already.

Editor's note: Know a great kid who made Eagle Scout or did your local soccer team take the championship? They may be our next Patch Whiz Kid honoree. We want to hear about these amazing children and teens and select one each week as the Patch Whiz Kid.