More than 175 participants from Anne Arundel, Calvert and Howard counties turned out for the two-day event. The Severn High students were among the 300 volunteers who supported the event.

"AJ has a lot of stuff going on - Eagle Scout, mega-eco-friendly, swimming, all-round great guy," said Harriet Yake, the Upper School's art teacher.

"He's very talented academically, but also just a neat kid. He is extremely environmentally conscious," echoed the school's college counseling assistant, Susan Crumrine.

"For our next project, we're considering a fundraising drive to purchase mosquito nets. We've heard there are areas of Africa that need the nets to help prevent malaria outbreaks," AJ said.

Closer to home, last week AJ, a member of Troop 995, sponsored by Gloria Dei! Lutheran Church in Arnold, learned that he's surmounted all the hurdles to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout.

"I organized a group that built a bridge in Harundel, a residential area in Glen Burnie, near Marley (Station)," he said. "There was a footbridge on the path through the parkland woods. Until the bridge was washed away by (Tropical Storm) Isabel, it was the quickest path through the park to a bus stop. Instead of burning fuel to commute into Annapolis, I determined it would be a good idea to replace the bridge and encourage people to use mass transportation instead."

The bridge was built and signs were also installed, letting people know how far they had to walk to reach the bus stop.

Saving energy and reducing his carbon footprint is never far from AJ's mind.

A couple years ago, he and his sister, Bethanne, now 20 and a student at Swarthmore in Philadelphia, took their bedrooms "off the grid." They installed a small solar panel on the southeastern corner of their family's Glen Burnie home, hooked it to a battery, and used the power from that contraption to run the lights and electric alarm clocks in their rooms.

To reduce their energy usage further, they removed their incandescent light bulbs in favor of compact fluorescent lights. The family also installed a wind turbine on the rooftop porch - along with the vegetable garden that flourishes up there in carefully tended planters. His mom got tired of gophers munching her organic veggies.

Last year, AJ pedaled the 9 miles to school nearly every day. After school, he'd bike another 8 miles to the Naval Academy campus, where he trained as a member of the academy swim club team. From there, one of his parents took him home. This year he has a car and isn't using pedal power as much.

Still, he keeps in shape by swimming for the USNA club team year-round and as a member of the Severn School swim team in season from November through mid-February. "His work with the swim team over the past three years has been phenomenal," said his coach, Tom Heslin, who's also an Upper School Latin instructor.

Both AJ's parents are Naval Academy professors. Bob Bruninga teaches electrical engineering. Under his direction, midshipmen are able to build satellites. In his spare time, he's rigged a Prius Hybrid car with 18 solar panels bolted to the roof and hood, to give his car even better gas mileage than its touted 45 miles per gallon.

Elise Albert is a physics instructor. Last year, AJ took her sophomore-level college course and found that he enjoyed it.

"I'm interested in the environment and conservation," he mused. "I hope to go into some kind of science field and will probably major in science. But I also like chemistry and biology a lot, too. It would be great if I could be working on helping the environment in a hands-on capacity or in a lab. There's lots of opportunities with the bay."

AJ is applying to 10 colleges in the Northeast, all with excellent academics, including Amherst, Yale and Swarthmore.

They're looking at him, too. His SAT scores totaled 2,240 - 750 in writing, 750 in math and 740 in critical reading. His weighted grade-point average is 4.29. AJ earned an 800, a perfect score, on the Math II and U.S. history tests.

He's a member of the school's Cum Laude Society and the National Honor Society and has received academic awards from Harvard and George Washington universities. AJ is proudest of the Stewart Chemistry Award he received for his outstanding academic achievement in chemistry during his junior year.

Still, one morning last week, he was still very much a teenager as he playfully tried to "teach" a biology class skeleton how to concoct a chemical cocktail.

"AJ has my vote. What a great kid he is," enthused Bob Kennedy, a middle school science teacher at Severn. "Always energetic, friendly, polite, a go-getter."