Schools

Meet Haddam-Killingworth High School's Valedictorian and Salutatorian

Emma Soneson and Megan Tischbein named tops of Class of 2012.

 

Haddam Killingworth High School students Emma Soneson and Megan Tischbein have one more homework assignment to complete before they can graduate — a speech. Soneson has been named the school's Class of 2012 valedictorian while Tischbein has earned the distinction of salutatorian.

This fall, will attend Yale University where she plans to study to become a doctor. The senior has managed to maintain an impressive 4.28 GPA while balancing her role outside of the classroom — she's captain of the tennis and volleyball teams.

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Soneson is the president of the National Honor Society and plays violin and viola in the Shoreline Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Tischbein is also a member of the National Honor Society, and serves as the class historian. She's also an 8-year member of the Elm City Girls Choir and is a senior leader (captain) of the cross country team, as well as the indoor/outdoor track teams.

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This fall, Tischbein will attend Colby College in Maine, where she plans to study biology.

Patch caught up with the pair this week for our "Top of the Class" interview:

Patch: Who has inspired you?

Megan: My family, because they've always helped me to strive for bigger and better things and they've supported me.

Emma: Definitely my parents. They've served as an example in my life. They've just put 100 percent into everything they do. They always put their effort into it and don't cut corners. That's taught me a lot about doing my school work and extra and co-curricular activities.

Patch: What's your favorite thing about HKHS?

Megan: The distance team because we are very close and I've made a lot of great friends on it. We've traveled to different states for meets and we've become friends.

Emma: I like the opportunities that the school has afforded me to take myeducation outside of our traditional classrooms. I've taken two classes from the local college, online classes, and now I do an internship outside of school. It's nice not to just be blackboard learning all day.

Patch: What are you most looking forward to in college?

Emma: From the food, which is kind of a silly thing to think about, but the food to the classes. They have very specialized classes which I'm really looking forward to. I'm taking History of the Study of Medicine in American Society. It sounds really nerdy that I'm excited to take classes but it is a big part of what I'm looking forward to.

Megan: I'm excited for everything as well. It's sort of in the middle of nowhere, which I'm looking forward to because I just like the outdoor part of it. I'll be part of the outing club, hopefully. I'm excited to meet people, the people who go there are very similar to me so I'm excited to get to know them.

Patch: What will you miss the most?

Emma: I'm going to miss the people. There have been so many people in Haddam and Killingworth that have made huge impacts in my life, from the faculty and staff here to everybody I playon sports teams with, to my church. It's going to be hard not having that support group in college.

Megan: I really like that it's a small town, but you can go places and hang out with people. I can easily go to Hammonasset to the beach, I can easily go for walk if I wanted to. I'll miss that.

Patch: What's your dream job?

Megan: I would like to be a large animal vet, so farm animals; cows, horses, sheep. I'll study biology so I can go on to medical school later.

Emma: I'm studying chemistry on a pre-med path and I would like to be an anesthesiologist.


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