Salute to the Class of 2012: Shorewood's Jacob Ziontz

Shorewood senior Jacob Ziontz, an all-state viola player, tennis player, history researcher and actor is headed to Grinnell College in Iowa this fall after accepting his diploma at graduation on Sunday, June 17 at the Comcast Center in Everett.

Ziontz played viola in the Shorewood orchestra all four years and made the all-state orchestra his junior and senior year.

A highlight musically was playing at Carnegie Hall with the Shorewood orchestra his junior year.

He also played in the Shorewood quartet that plays gigs around the local area.

Ziontz grew up in Shoreline and attended Shoreline Schools all the way through including Syre and Meridian Park elementary schools, Einstein Middle School and Shorewood.

His sophomore year, Ziontz participated in the history day competition and made it to the national level for a paper he wrote on Native American treaty rights.

Ziontz played varsity tennis and tried his hand at acting and appeared in the Laramie Project about the death of gay student Matthew Shepard, and also acted in a short play this past spring.

Academically, Ziontz said he liked many of his Advanced Placement classes, including U.S. History, AP Psychology, AP Language and Composition, AP Statistics, AP Calculus.

He was also named a National Merit Commended Student.

Ziontz also wrote a script and performed at assembly for science classes as part of the HOPE Club, which stands for Helping Our Planet Earth.

 Some of his other Shorewood highlights were the junior class winning the spirit award for Homecoming and skipping the Homecoming dance with friends his sophomore year to play Dance Dance Revolution and watch bad movies.

Ziontz said he picked Grinnell because, “it’s a small liberal arts school, with really diverse academics. I visited, and liked the people and atmosphere.”

"I picked a liberal arts school so I could figure out what I have a passion for,” he said.

Something about Ziontz, you might not know?

He doesn’t like sweet things, like cake.

Zionitz’ parents are Martin Ziontz and Susan Silverman. He also has a brother, Aaron, who is two years older.