younger and older persons, the younger person is holding a certificate

Veronika Willardson is perfect in both Word and Excel.

The Nacogdoches High School junior scored a perfect 1,000 on Microsoft Office Specialist certification exams for the two Microsoft products, which qualified Veronika to compete against other students nationwide in the Certiport 2021 Microsoft Office Specialist U.S. National Online Championship.

Earlier this month Veronika learned she had a second-place finish in the Microsoft Office Specialist State Championship Spring Qualifier with her perfect score on the Excel certification exam.

“I would go into Excel to mess around with it, and I took the test multiple times just to see how fast I could do it,” said Veronika, who’s also a member of the track and swim teams at NHS.

This doesn’t happen often. Business teacher Debbie Crenshaw said she’s had no more than three students post a perfect score on a certification exam during the last 15 years.

“First of all, I would like to congratulate Veronika on her perfect score of 1000, which is very hard to get in Excel,” said Crenshaw, who teaches Business Information  Management courses in Nacogdoches High School’s Career & Technical Education Department. “It’s quite an accomplishment.”

Many users take advantage of Excel’s formulas to create spreadsheets to compile numbers. Veronika’s expertise with the software reaches a level that lets her do much more.

“I know how to use different functions to create different graphs and analyze data,” she said.

Veronika’s plans for after NHS – she graduates in 2023 – include medical school.

Each spring, dozens of business students in Crenshaw’s and others’ classes at NHS obtain certification in Microsoft Office programs.

“The key benefits to obtaining a Microsoft Office certification is its academic readiness for the workforce and for college,” Crenshaw said. “Also, it’s a great thing for students to put on their scholarship application just to show they worked a little bit harder to achieve this success and it’s a great thing to put on an application for the workforce.”