Marina Kounkel, a 16-year-old senior at Salem High School, is originally from Kazakstan and has proven to be outstanding at math and computer programming. (Salem News photo by Kevin Howell)

By LARRY SHIELDS

Salem News staff writer

SALEM — She is set to graudate next month, has been in the United State for three-and-a-half years and just won a prestigious computer program writing contest at Gannon University.

Marina Kounkel, a 16-year-old senior at Salem High School, arrived here from Kazakstan and has proven to be more than an your average whiz at mathematics and computer programming.

Teacher Jeff Gill Kounkel said, “She has an extraordinary work ethic, grasps concepts very quickly and when you place those together she is extremely capable of writing programs in calculus.”

Gill added, “She demands a lot from herself...she’ll be highly successful at the college level because of her talent in chemistry, math and computer science.”

Kounkel plans on majoring in astronomy at the University of Toledo in the fall, while studying the Japanese language which she is already learning. She choses Toledo because i