When Zachary Meunier visited Washington, D.C., this past March, he wasn’t taking pictures of the Washington Monument or looking at cherry blossoms. Instead, the 17-year-old Indiana University High School junior was shaking hands with people like State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack, FBI deputy director Mike Mason, and consumer advocate Ralph Nader. He was also reconnecting with the man he helped get re-elected, Indiana Congressman Baron Hill. Meunier was in the nation’s capital as part of “A Presidential Classroom for Young Americans,” one of the country’s leading civic and leadership education programs. It was “one awesome week” in the life of a young man who is determined to work professionally in campaign politics and who is getting a head start on his goal thanks to Indiana University High School (IUHS).
Meunier began IUHS in the fall of 2004. At the time, his father was a doctoral student at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. “My dad was only a couple of years away from finishing his degree,” said Meunier. “I really didn’t want to go to a local school for two years, get settled in, and then get yanked out and have to do it all over again.”
As it turned out, the family remained in Bloomington, but because he enjoyed IUHS, Meunier decided to stay with it rather than enroll in a local high school. “IUHS has made two very important opportunities a reality for me,” said Meunier. “First, I was able to intern with Congressman Baron Hill’s campaign in fall 2006. If I had been in a traditional school, it would have been near impossible. Second, with IUHS, I can study on my own schedule. As a result, I’m able to take courses at IU through the OPEN program. I take classes on campus and get high school and college credit.”
When he isn’t working on his courses, Meunier serves as chairman for his church youth group and volunteers for the Monroe County Public Library. He has logged at least 20 hours of volunteer work with the library for each of five summers. In addition, he clocked more than 225 hours as a volunteer for the Hill campaign in the summer and early fall of 2006.
Currently, Meunier is preparing for the next step: college. He is looking at Indiana University, American University in D.C., and Northwestern University in Chicago. Regardless of the school he chooses, he’ll arrive on campus as a sophomore. By then, he will have completed a year’s worth of college credits through the OPEN program. “I’m more than ‘college prep’ with IUHS,” said Meunier. “I’m college ready.”
