Riverhead School District

Riverhead announces the Class of 2015’s valedictorian and salutatorian

The Class of 2015 Salutatorian is Emily Behr, who earned a weighted grade point average of 108.52. She will be attending SUNY/Stony Brook to study linguistics.

She has been chosen for the highly selective University Scholars program at Stony Brook University, which is based on excellence in academics.

She is an AP Scholar with Distinction, meaning that she has scored an average of 3.5 or higher on all six of her AP exams, and also earned a score of 4 or better on all of her exams. Emily has received nine academic awards throughout high school, in various subjects, including a Latin achievement award every year.

Ms. Behr has been greatly involved in music, playing clarinet since she was in fifth grade, has performed at NYSSMA, and has participated in both HMEA–where she was first chair–and SCMEA for voice.
Additionally she has been an active participant in many activities throughout high school.

She has performed in plays with the Blue Masques drama club, has donated her time through the Riverhead Key Club, is a member of the Women In Science and Engineering program and works as an editor for Labyrinth Literary Magazine.

She is also a member of Mentathletes, in which a team of four competes against other schools in Suffolk County in a quiz-bowl-style competition; the team made the Suffolk County regionals in both years she participated.

She has competed in the Latin Declamatio and the Latin Certamen, and has secured wins for both. Emily is a member of both the National Honor Society and the Foreign Language Honor Society for Latin, and she is an officer for the latter.

In the future, Mr. Behr plans to become an English teacher. She would like to teach in an English-speaking country, or go to a place where English is taught as a secondary language.

“The art of language has intrigued me for many years now, and I would like to share my experiences and knowledge with the future generations, no matter where I am,” she said in a statement.