The Best Night Of The Year—

NHS Names Its Valedictorian And Salutatorian

By Martha Coville

Claire Ober and Elise DeRoo agree that speaking at this year’s Newtown High School graduation is an a “wonderful opportunity” and an “honor.” Claire has recently been named as the NHS Class of 2008 valedictorian; Elise, who had the second highest grade point average in the class, is the salutatorian. Both students will speak at the high school graduation in June.

“It’s been four years of hard work,” for Claire and Elise, said NHS Principal Charles Dumais. He announced the girls’ achievements last week, at a March 18 Board of Education meeting. “We only have four years of records,” of Claire and Elise’s academic achievements at the high school, he added. “It’s been a lot longer than that,” he said, since the two students have earned outstanding grades through middle school and before.

Mr Dumais said he took pleasure in making the announcement. “This is just the best night of the school year,” he said. He said that of the 430 or so students graduating this year, Claire and Elise had the “highest academic grade point average.”

Claire and Elise run track together, and have plans to major in similar fields. “Both of us want to go into medicine,” said Elise. Claire said she knows that she wants to study “something in the neural science field,” but that she has not decided where to go to college yet, and that her exact major will depend on program offerings. “Maybe neural biology or in microbiology,” she said. “I’ve been accepted to medical school at UConn, but I’ve also been accepted to Duke University, so we’ll see.”

Elise said that she has chosen both the college she would like to attend, Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., and her major, molecular biology. But although she knows she wants to have “medicine-based career,” she’s not yet sure what she’d like to specialize in. “Maybe surgery,” she said, “or I might want to do research.”

Claire and Elise also said they particularly enjoyed the science and math classes they took at NHS. Claire said that she most enjoyed classes where she could “take what you’re learning in school and apply it.” In particular, she said she had taken a lot away from the physics class she is taking this semester with teacher Kim Lowell. “I like any class where the teacher gets me excited about the subject, like my AP Government class.” Jason Edwards is her AP Government teacher.

“Junior year,” said Elise, “I took anatomy and physiology with Mr Thomas Kuroski, and that really solidified my idea that I wanted to go into a medicine-based career.” She also said that she had the same teacher, Kevin O’Sullivan, for math as a freshman and senior. “He’s probably my absolute favorite teacher. But both he and Mr Kuroski are just amazing as mentors, teachers, and leaders.”

Elise, who also ran on the high school’s fall cross country team, said she has already spoken to coaches at Colgate. “I’m going to run both cross country and track,” she said.

Claire said she did not think she would continue to train at varsity or college level next year, but that she wants to continue studying foreign languages and music. “Maybe if I could play a club sport next year, like basketball, I’d do that,” she said. “I’d love to learn how to fence, too. I’ve been teaching myself German over the years,” she said, adding that she would like to studying it in a classroom. NHS does not currently offer German as a foreign language. “I’d also like to keep studying Spanish,” said Claire. Claire also sings and plays the flute, “but singing is what I really love.” She said she definitely plans on singing in college.

“Our grade is so competitive,” Claire said. “So there are a lot of people who could have been valedictorian. I don’t think I’m nervous about making the speech. I’m pretty comfortable in front of large groups. It’s really just an honor to have some of the last words to our class.”

Claire admitted that “a few things have been going through my mind,” for her speech, but said she has not chosen a particular topic. Elise thinks she has narrowed hers down. “I really want to focus on the fact that we might not have taken the same path to get here, but we all worked really hard, and we’re all here together right now,” she said. “As we move forward into our futures, our paths might diverge again, but we should all keep in mind what we learned in high school.”

“I’m a little nervous,” said Elise. “I know people are really critical of graduation speeches, but I’m also glad to have the opportunity. I’m also just glad to have the opportunity to prepare,” she said with a laugh.

Being salutatorian, Elise said “had never been like a goal of mine. Like freshman year, I never had that as a goal.” But she said, when she found herself among the top ten students in her class earlier this year, she worked to keep her grade point average up.

Newtown High School will not schedule graduation until after April break.