William Ferenchick has always been interested in mathematics.<\/p>\n
The Wilson High School senior had an aptitude for it at a young age, traveling from the middle school to the high school in eighth grade in order to take an algebra 2 class.<\/p>\n
But it was another class, one called I-STEM, that really caught his attention.<\/p>\n
The course integrated science, technology, engineering and math. And Ferenchick was fascinated to see how what he had been learning from books could be seen in the real world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s how I began to see how math can be applied to real-life scenarios,\u201d the Spring Township resident said. \u201cWe learned math, but applied it to engineering things.\u201d<\/p>\n
That discovery has led Ferenchick down a path of using math to tackle real-life challenges \u2014 which included his creating award-winning science fair projects. And he plans to continue the journey toward a career in engineering.<\/p>\n
His dedication to and skill in the world of numbers has earned Ferenchick the distinction of being named the Reading Eagle\u2019s Berks\u2019 Best 2026 winner in mathematics.<\/p>\n
Ferenchick said he enjoys math because of how it builds on itself, how each concept he learns related to others. But he also loves how it\u2019s more than just theories.<\/p>\n
Like, for example, how calculations about the relationship between acceleration and velocity can be seen when you\u2019re driving in a car.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile you\u2019re driving, moving through space, you can feel the implications of the math,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ferenchick took that fasciation and used it to fuel his success in the Reading-Berks Science and Engineering Fair.<\/p>\n
He first entered the fair as a sophomore, building a rover with wheels that could move to adjust to different terrain.<\/p>\n
As a junior his project on bioplastics took him all the way to the international level. And his senior year project saw him design and create a robot that, using the human knee as inspiration, could jump.<\/p>\n
That project could be a preview of Ferenchick\u2019s future, as the 18-year-old is set to head off to Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the fall to pursue mechanical and materials engineering. His plan is to use that education to springboard a career creating medical devices.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really like being able to help people with the things I make,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Outside of math, Ferenchick said he also has an interest in music. He played saxophone in the high school jazz band, and is an accomplished pianist.<\/p>\n
Ferenchick has also been active in the Boy Scouts, recently earning his Eagle Scout rank.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"William Ferenchick has always been interested in mathematics. The Wilson High School senior had an aptitude for it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,85079,227,182,139,28,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-193257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-berks-best-2026","tag-education","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}