News Photo by Julie Goldberg Besser Elementary School third-grader Samuel Fitzpatrick works Thursday on his Chromebook. Fitzpatrick recently claimed the top spot in the state for lessons passed in Imagine Math, a personalized learning program that allows students to learn at their own pace.

ALPENA — Besser Elementary School third-grader Samuel Fitzpatrick is a superstar and celebrity among his classmates and staff.

Fitzpatrick recently claimed the top spot in the state for lessons passed in Imagine Math, a personalized learning program that helps students learn math at their own pace.

“At first, I was trying to get to top in the class when we first started, and, once I got on the school leaderboard, I thought that was really cool,” Fitzpatrick said Thursday. “I worked on it for a really long time and, for a little bit, I knew I was in third or second and I knew I could get in first eventually and I did.”

Fitzpatrick’s dad, Lee Fitzpatrick, is the parent engagement coordinator for Alpena Public Schools and is proud of his son for his accomplishment.

“He’s worked so hard at it,” Lee said. “I think he hit his goal for the year in the first two months maybe. They have a yearlong goal for lessons completed, and he’s done it at home sometimes, too.”

Samuel’s teacher, Ashley Dunn, said Samuel loves to learn and push himself in the classroom.

“It’s very exciting, especially with Sam, because he’s excited to learn anything,” Dunn said. “He wants to learn, he’s got that drive, and you can’t teach that. It’s something that’s just instilled with him. So it’s really exciting and something that I love having in my class, and it’s really nice to have at Besser, too.”

“My friends were really excited,” Samuel said.

Samuel wants to be an engineer when he grows up, because he’s good at math and knows that will help him become an engineer.

“I think it’s great that he’s self-motivated,” Lee said. “This is a program that’s important for kids because it allows the teacher to teach at all proper levels and some kids can catch up, some kids can push forward if they’re ready to advance.”

Julie Goldberg can be reached at 989-358-5688 or jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jkgoldberg12.