Hannah Meyers, who graduates June 16 from Montville High School and reports 13 days later for swab summer at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, said she spent a lot of late nights with her school books over the past four years.

During school hours, she served as her class president and on the Student Council all four years. She spent her afternoons on athletic fields, distinguishing herself as a soccer and softball player for the Indians. Somehow, she found time to volunteer with the Montville Leo's Club and belong to the Young Educators Society.

"I've been busting butt in school, for lack of a better term," the blue-eyed redhead said during an interview last week at the high school.

Meyers, 18, is a National Honor Society member who will graduate in the top five percent of her class. She describes herself as a diligent worker who likes to unwind when the time is right. She paints to relax, listens to music and goes out with her friends.

"I love the beach," she said. "If I could spend every day there, I would."

Her love of the water led to her decision last year to apply to the Coast Guard Academy, where Meyers hopes to make a career of protecting the public. She said she would like to work on a drug and migrant interdiction vessel.

[naviga:iframe width="100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mOpfD5dol6g" height="240" frameborder="0"] [/naviga:iframe]

Meyers is nervous about leaving the Uncasville home where she has lived her entire life with her parents, Tammy and Shayne Meyers, and her younger sister, Emma, but she's ready to work hard in the military.

"You have to toughen up and be on your own, and it takes a lot of willpower," she said.

Meyers said she filled out paperwork "for weeks" and had to get fingerprinted, cleared by security and pass an agility test before she was accepted in to the Coast Guard Academy.

Her best friend, Claire Rummel, said she has no doubt Meyers will succeed.

"She's a pretty determined person," Rummel said. "When she puts her mind to it, she does it."

Guidance counselor Catherine Macri described Meyers as an "all around great person" and wrote in an email that she has been "a dream" to work with.

"I am confident that she has a bright future ahead of her and will make valuable contributions along her journey," Macri wrote.

Born in 1997, Meyers is too young to remember the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. She said the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School and the Boston Marathon Bombings of 2013 are "more fresh in my mind."

"It's a scary thing to know you're growing up in a world that frightening and scary," she said.

On the other hand, she appreciates the opportunities she had growing up in a supportive family in the United States.

"If you want to do something, you can go out and do it," Meyers said. "It's a good place to live, a good place to be."

k.florin@theday.com

Twitter: @KFLORIN