What quality of Ebright impressed his social studies teacher?

His social studies teacher, Mr. Weiherer always opened Richard's mind to new ideas. He was impressed by Richard's committment towards his work. He mentioned that Richard used to put in three or four hours at night doing debate research besides doing all his research on butterflies and his other interests was remarkable. He added that Richard was competitive. He explained that Richard was interested in winning because he wanted to do the best job he could. He wants to be the best for the right reasons. He wanted to make a real contribution to science through his researches.