Renaissance teen: Lifeguard/tennis player/musician is a model winner for Aeropostale

Ashton Crowther of Channelview was one of eight winners selected from a pool of 6,000 applicants in retail chain Aeropostale's "Real Teen" scholarship competition. Winners receive a $5,000 scholarship and a spot on a poster in the display windows of all Aeropostale locations.

Crowther, a 17-year-old student at Channelview High School, was chosen for his dedication to community service and broad interests. He's a varsity swimmer and tennis player, a lifeguard (he says he's saved four lives), and he plays the saxophone in his high school band. He devotes his free time to several causes, including "trash bashes" with his local Rotary to clean up his community.

CultureMap spoke with Ashton about his win and where he plans to use that scholarship. He's looking at several schools including Baylor, University of Texas-San Antonio and Quinnipiac University in Connecticut and has designs to be a lawyer, although he says, "law is just like the tip of the iceberg, really. I really want to move over to to politics. I got the Barack Obama plan."

Crowther submitted his profile to the contest after he found a flyer of his sister's. He says he didn't do much campaigning for the win — finalists were selected by online votes — and only told a few close friends about his advancement to finalist. He hasn't even seen his poster yet.

We told him we had, and it looks great — had we not known the backstory, we'd have thought he was a model.

Watch Crowther's submission video below: