Volunteers come in all ages and abilities,...

Volunteers come in all ages and abilities, and Erik Rydberg, 15, a 10th-grader at Santiago High School in Garden Grove, is not only one of the youngest but also one of the best.

The Volunteer Center of South Orange County named him winner of the Coronation Community Service Award, besting 12 other volunteer finalists.

He was nominated by the UCI Medical Center, where he volunteers in the anesthesiology department, giving him a chance to decide if medicine is his career goal.

“It looks very worthwhile,” said Rydberg, who belongs to his high school band, the Santa Ana Winds Youth Band and volunteers at his local library, “but there’s so many pressures a doctor has to deal with.”

During the summer he volunteered 239 hours of his time.