Montgomery Teen Nears Perfect School Attendance Record for 13 Years - washingtonpost.com

Here, Here! 13 Years Of Perfect Attendance.

Seniors Nikita Mani, left, and Stefanie Zaner walk to class. Stefanie, a straight-A student, will attend the University of Maryland. The past two years
Seniors Nikita Mani, left, and Stefanie Zaner walk to class. Stefanie, a straight-A student, will attend the University of Maryland. The past two years "have probably been the most stressful years of my life," Stefanie said. (By Sarah L. Voisin -- The Washington Post)
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To keep the streak alive, the Stafford teenager has passed up national baseball tournaments. Even an ankle sprain sophomore year, he said, "wasn't a good-enough reason to stay home."

Stefanie, like Kristen and Austin, didn't enter kindergarten intent on never missing school. The goal crept up on her. Her principal at Darnestown Elementary School, Larry Chep, gave out annual awards for perfect attendance. She won a couple, then found she "really liked being recognized for something." By the end of fifth grade, when Chep recognized her for six consecutive years without absence, Stefanie stood alone.

Chep remembers her as "one of those kids you want in your school." Stefanie returns to Darnestown Elementary each spring to help her fourth-grade teacher take down her classroom and organize her closet.

Iron Man Cal earned his nickname by playing through injury. So did Stefanie, in a way, coming to school sick or, more often, dead tired. She's never had a serious illness or a high fever, she said, a claim to which friends and teachers attest. If anything, sniffly classmates fretted about making her sick. Austin and Kristen, too, are preternaturally healthy.

Stefanie will attend the University of Maryland in its honors program. She wants to be a doctor. She is a straight-A student.

"That's since third grade," her mother said in the family kitchen.

"Since fourth grade," Stefanie interjected.

And just what sort of person earns straight A's for 10 years -- make that nine -- without missing a day of school? A perfectionist. A worrier. An overachiever. Stefanie is all of those, by her own account.