Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Mitchell Oleson

As an offensive lineman on the Bishop Diego football team, Mitchell Oleson blew open holes for running backs.

Off the field, Oleson worked on the development of a laser that could blow apart an asteroid headed toward Earth.

The Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table recognized Oleson for his brainpower and athleticism by naming him the Scholar-Athlete of the Year award winner from Bishop Diego.

Oleson, who also is a four-year varsity baseball player, holds a 4.39 GPA while taking courses in Advanced Placement U.S. Government, English Literature and Computer Science. Also included in his class load are Multimedia Tools, Web Design and Theology and Ethics.

This past summer he was part of a research mentorship program at UCSB and worked in a physics lab where they developed a laser system that could vaporize incoming asteroids.

“Being Han Solo apparently is a major thing to be worked in,” Marc Gamberdella, Round Table board member and sponsor of the award, said of the Eagle Scout.

Oleson completed two courses in vector calculus at UCSB and received A grades in both. He plans to major in computer science in college. His school choices include a University of California school, Cal Poly, Stanford and MIT.