Travel back in time to fourth grade, seven years ago. While many of his classmates are in their core classes learning basic math all fourth graders learn, Peter Kundzicz is with his teacher, Joyce Hammer, starting basic high school math. His hand moves across the paper, his pencil racing to write numbers and calculations. “It just comes naturally so easily to him,”  friend and junior George Enwia said.

From an early age, it was obvious that Kundzicz had a special talent for combining and figuring  numbers. Starting in first grade or kindergarten, Kundzicz started to shine.

“My parents and teachers were the first people to realize that I was able to move at a faster pace than most of my grade,” Kundzicz said. “My mom would make up her own problems and I would solve them.”

In fourth grade, Kundzicz took the eighth grade math test for high school. His parents weren’t ready to allow him to go to Niles West for more advanced math, so he stayed at Fairview South Middle School for math. But Kundzicz took the test again in sixth grade and went into honors geometry with high school students.

It’s hard to imagine what it would feel like to be a sixth grader in a class of high schoolers. There’s no one your age, which means making friends would probably be a little difficult. Think of the differences between a high schooler and a sixth grader. Height, intelligence, character, the list goes on.

“Kids in my grade were always looking up to me for help because they knew I was able to help,” Kundzicz said. “Sometimes I felt bad because I was so ahead, and people would put themselves down about not understanding material.”

Lucky for students, Kundzicz is always willing to help. He’s extremely approachable and gives an excellent explanation on the information a student might be having trouble with.

“People just come up to him,” George said. “He’s just too smart. He understands things that people have problems with. But he’s always willing to give up some of his time to help a friend, or anyone for that matter.”

“I’m not a Lit Center tutor this year, but I would like to next year because I casually get asked for help, so working in the Lit Center would be easy for me,” Kundzicz said.

This year, you can find Kundzicz in his math modeling and research class during eighth period in the STEM lab. He’s taking this math elective because he has already taken the highest math classes. His teacher is Timothy Miller, who he also had last year as his math teacher. In class, Miller describes Kundzicz as “the quiet guy who rarely makes mistakes. He is soft spoken and easy to understand. He has a dry sense of humor and is not afraid to poke fun at himself.”

Going from a class of mostly seniors, to a mixture of class levels this year, Miller has learned things about Kundzicz that he did not know last year.

“I would have never guessed Peter was a swimmer!” Miller said laughing, “Last year he was in my early bird class and I’m sure there were early swim practices, but there never seemed to be any conflict. He was always on time, and he never seemed physically exhausted, which is really impressive.”

It’s easy for most high school students to start thinking about college from the start of freshman year, but for Kundzicz, it’s a little different.

“My parents came from Poland,” he said. “So, that makes me the first American generation in my family to go to an American college,” with this there is a slight smile on his face, a look of satisfaction.

If it isn’t obvious enough, Kundzicz does want to pursue a career involving math. More specifically, he wants to go into engineering with computers. He wants to follow this path because he has a passion for math, and what he calls its close cousin, science. The two are similar subjects in which they each include calculations and a lot of brain capacity.

Kundzicz takes part in the Math Team here at West and also WYSE club. WYSE club is a club not only for math but other subjects too. Members take different tests in subjects of their choice, Kundzicz’s are math and computer science. He doesn’t have a specific favorite type of math but he does have least favorites.

“Matrices and probability. I’m not too fond of matrices because I never really learned them,” Kundzicz said.

Kundzicz is also not afraid to point out mistakes when a teacher is writing something on the board, but it’s usually only if something doesn’t make sense. He’s not always right, but teachers always appreciate the extra help.

“I can definitely say that I have learned from Peter. He thinks about things differently than I do and i find it unique,” Miller said.
When asked if math is his favorite subject, Kundzicz answered yes. The way he sees it is, “If you’re good at something, you can’t help but like it!”