Natchez — Seth Smith III, a senior at Adams County Christian School, has a natural talent for fixing things, including cars and cities.

In July, Smith said he spent more than a week with a group in San Juan, Puerto Rico, as a volunteer to help with repairs, nearly a year after devastation left by Hurricane Maria.

“We looked at some job sites, and we checked behind some engineers and picked up some of the work that they missed,” Smith said.

For the most part, Smith said San Juan had recovered from hurricane damage when he arrived, but traces were left from what happened there.

“San Juan — their major city — was pretty much up and running,” he said, “but out in the country, a lot of people didn’t have power. We saw several power lines down. What was a gymnasium — there was pretty much nothing there but a concrete slab. … There was a lot there to remember.”

Smith said he loves to work on things at home, too. His passion started when his dad, Seth Smith Jr., taught him to rebuild a carburetor on a dirt bike.

“You get a kit … and you take it apart, clean everything and then it has some pieces that wear … rubber gaskets and whatnot that wear over time … you replace those and put it back together,” Smith said.

Smith said he plans to attend college in Louisiana and study mechanical engineering.

“I’ve always been interested in vehicles,” he said. “I just rebuilt the carburetor on my 1969 Chevy,” he said, “and I’ve been working on a couple of old four-wheelers. Somebody gave us one that had been sitting in his shed for 15 years. … I just got it running.”

Smith is not only gifted with his hands but in the classroom as well. He has the highest reading level of any student in his class and scored a 32 on the ACT last year.

He has also been voted class favorite for three years running.

He is an active member of the National Honor Society and the Student Council at ACCS.

Apart from fixing vehicles, Smith said he also enjoys reading, science and fish — catching, eating and just fish in general.

Smith is the son of Seth Smith Jr., Amy Gordon, and the stepson of Amanda Smith and David Gordon, who have all pushed him to do his best and be successful, he said.