Tanisha Smith looks up to her 15-year-old son, Jay-Quan Dill.

“It may sound strange, but I do,” she said.

The “highly decorated” student at the Berkeley Institute has amassed a large collection of trophies, medals, plaques and certificates for his many accomplishments.

There are so many, he struggles to recall the exact reasons for being awarded each one.

They include a Young Citizen Award and an Ambassador’s Cup. His latest are a Principal’s Honours prize and a Most Outstanding Student accolade.

The former was for displaying strong leadership qualities and excellence in school.

Jay-Quan has been awarded the Principal’s Honour every quarter since joining Berkeley. Having maintained an above 90 average, he is the top student in his year.

The self-motivated teenager said his favourite subjects were maths, physics and Spanish, and took two IGCSEs early.

He began at Berkeley having passed his IGCSE maths examination in middle school and was the first S1 student to attempt to write the physics exam in less than eight months, earning an A*.

Now a prefect in S2, he has dreams of studying actuarial science at university.

Most of the awards are for his academic pursuits, but his love of bowling breaks the trend. He tried many sports growing up, he said, but nothing stuck until he found this niche. A member of the Bermuda Junior Bowling League since he was 8, he is one of the top junior bowlers on the island, scoring an average of 200 points a game.

While he has always strived for excellence, his mother said he experienced the typical challenges that come with being a teenager.

“He gets down sometimes but I encourage him,” she said, adding that her son could seem quiet but had a very creative mind.

“He’s quiet but he’s always thinking of ways to improve or do things differently,” she added. “He sees things in a different light. I encourage him to broaden his mind, to do the best that he can do, and he encourages me in more ways than one. He inspires me.”

Jay-Quan said a recent career event at his school with industry professionals had opened up the possibilities of working outside Bermuda.

“I like travelling and would love the chance to explore the world, but I will most likely come back here,” he said.

He would like to travel “everywhere”, and has particularly enjoyed trips to Spain and Costa Rica, where he was able to practise his language skills.

His mother said he had always set very high standards for himself from a young age and had carried good study habits through to adolescence.

“He’s always worked hard and strived for excellence, ever since primary school,” she said. “He shines.