WEEDSPORT - Rebecca Whitman shook her head, mouth slightly agape, eyes wide and focused on an implacable point just above the ground as she searched for the words to describe the last month and a half, which she had spent hobbling around on crutches with her foot in a cast.

There were no words to describe the horror that taunted Becca, a 12-year-old eighth-grader with a matrix of an extracurricular schedule, when toe surgery prevented her from doing just about everything she likes to do.

For the record, Becca likes to do just about everything: She plays piano and trumpet, soccer and softball; she also dances, acts and volunteers with her church, library and local food pantry. She likes to learn and is at the top of her class, despite skipping a year.

Becca's academic excellence and dedication to volunteer work have earned her local and statewide recognition as the recipient of the Student Academic Excellence Award, given by the Advocacy for Gifted and Talented Education in New York State to a student with exemplary school records and community involvement.

She was nominated for the award by Anne Mlod, a librarian at Weedsport Free Library, where Becca is president of a youth group that volunteers at and raises money for the library. As the second such award Becca has won from the association - she received the Nicholas Green Distinguished Student award in 2007 - the honor is evidence that, for Becca, extraordinary work is daily procedure.

“I've always been really curious,” Becca said. “I always want to find out something I didn't know before.”

When she was younger, Becca satisfied her curiosity by collecting pebbles, feathers and nature's other souvenirs in her family's backyard. But as she aged, her curiosity became more insatiable and she has turned to volunteer work to learn more about her community and world around her.

Curious to know where the food she helped collect and sort at the food pantry where she volunteers came from, Becca asked to accompany her adult colleagues to distribute the food to migrant workers in King Ferry. She said it was one of the most eye-opening experiences of her life.

“They all were very grateful and you could see that,” said Becca. “I just really like to help people.”

At the library, Becca is responsible for planning meetings, making sure the younger members are engaged and helping organize the group's annual trip to the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. Becca's crutches kept her from attending this year, but she has previously helped scribe a letter to the president to request a tour of the White House.

“It's a good responsibility,” Becca said. “I get to work with some really nice people.”

Though she is only 12, Becca's friendliness and confidence make her a born leader.

When the priest at Becca's church needed help organizing the community's youth, he turned to Becca, who founded a youth group that writes for the church bulletin. She also volunteers at the church as a lector, sacristan and first-grade religion teacher.

Becca's bedroom is a testament to her varied interests: walls adorned with team snapshots and leftover church palms, bookshelves stacked with sports trophies and an array of books about everything from sharks to Afghanistan.

Becca's mature taste, self-confidence and eloquent conversational skills are characteristics of a child who grew up with much older siblings, now 23 and 26, said Becca's mother, Donna Whitman.

“When you grow up with adults, you end up more adult-like,” said Whitman, who for years struggled to meet Becca's thirst for more stimulating schooling with tutors. In 2008, at the suggestion of a principal, Whitman agreed to let Becca skip sixth grade, if she wanted to.

“The first week of school I was a nervous wreck,” Whitman said, “You second-guess yourself.”

But Becca knew it was the right decision and has never regretted it.

“I was different than anyone else,” she said. Now, her class work and friends are more fitting. “Every day I come home and say ‘yes, I had a really great day,'” Becca said.

Becca loves everything about school, but she is particularly interested in science. She hopes to one day study forensic or biomedical science, to help close criminal cases or cure diseases, she said. “Something that would benefit others.”