Coeur d’Alene Charter’s Maria Aguiar enjoys sciences and humanities the same; heading to MIT in fall

According to Chris Baker, an English teacher at Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy, what stands out most about Maria Aguiar is her maturity.

“Some kids will be picky, picky, picky to get every single point on a test,” who taught Aguiar in two high-school English classes. “Maria’s more interested in, ‘Why is this the answer?’ She’s in the pursuit of improving herself and expanding her knowledge.”

So Baker was surprised to find out Aguiar – who skipped the second grade and turns 17 in May – is the youngest student in the senior class.

“I didn’t even realize that,” she said. “I never would have guessed she was that young.”

Aguiar will head to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the fall and attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, arguably the most prestigious math and science university in the world.

Even when she was a sixth-grader at Charter, Aguiar stood out, Baker said.

There was one assignment Aguiar had that involved interviewing the school’s principal. But she didn’t ask banal, surface-level questions about what the job was like.

“She was asking questions about the challenges of being a principal,” Baker said. “That’s amazing for a sixth-grader.”

At first, Aguiar thought she’d study aerospace engineering at MIT, but she changed her mind and now plans to study molecular engineering.

A molecular engineering degree could lead her down a few different paths. Companies such as Boeing need molecular engineers to develop coatings to protect planes against harsh weather, for instance.

Molecular engineers work on everyday products, too. They can help design anything that floats or flies. They might work on building lighter bike frames, or creating thinner fabrics for jackets and tents.

Aguiar loves physics, chemistry and math. Molecular engineering is an ideal way to blend those interests, she said.

In addition to loving the hard sciences, Aguiar is also an avid reader. She said she has always loved her humanities classes just as much as the science ones.

She spends a lot of her free time reading.

“I really like the classics,” Aguiar said.

And she’s a big fan of Russian novels. She likes Leo Tolstoy, but her favorite Russian novel is Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment.”

Baker said that makes Aguiar stand out.

“You have kids who say, ‘Oh no, I’m a math kid,’” she said. “Maria will take any class and just run with it. She wants to get better at everything.”

Aguiar was born in Venezuela, and lived there for three and a half years before her family moved to Kellogg. Her father works at Hecla Mining and her mother is a Spanish teacher.

North Idaho doesn’t have a large Latino community. Aguiar said she has experienced some off-color comments while growing up Latino in North Idaho.

“I can’t let them get to me,” she said, adding that if someone says something inappropriate she tries to use it as motivation to prove them wrong.

Baker said she doesn’t have any doubt Aguiar will go on to great things.

“I can’t say enough about her,” Baker said. “She will go far.”