At the top of their class: For second year, area vals and sals are all girls

Riverhead High School senior Emma Ellis remembers the moment she moved to town as a fifth-grader and set one of her most ambitious goals: to be valedictorian.

This past month she reached that milestone, joining eight other girls on the North Fork who will graduate in the top two academic spots in their class. This is the second year in a row North Fork schools have all female valedictorians and salutatorians.

“It definitely feels good to accomplish my most long-term goal ever so far,” Emma said.

Emma, with a grade point average of 109.88, has committed to the University of Notre Dame where she will be studying chemical engineering in the fall.

Some of the advice she has for underclassmen includes not underestimating the importance of your grades at the beginning of high school.

“Definitely keep working hard toward the beginning of high school because that will come back towards the end,” she said.

Emma volunteers in Riverhead Community Awareness Program, is on the school’s cross-country team and track team and plays the flute and is in the school’s wind ensemble and pep band. She hopes to join marching band in college.

Riverhead’s salutatorian, Jennifer Alonzo Moreno, was surprised when she found out she was second in her class. 

“For me it was always just keeping up with everyone else because even when I was younger, especially beginning school, I only spoke Spanish, so I had to learn English and, even then, I was behind already so it was always just catching up with everyone else,” she said.

Being a part of this group of strong, intelligent students means a lot to her, especially considering the fact that she is Latina. Her background is from Honduras.

“It’s a lot of representation that I’m trying to uphold here and I’m trying very hard to be the representation I didn’t see when I was younger,” she said.

Her GPA is also just over 109. She will attend Boston University and study computer science in the fall.

The district’s top student in the Career and Technical Education program at Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services is Amaya Hopkins. In the fall, she plans to go to Suffolk County Community College and enroll in the computer science program. She is also considering taking classes in cybersecurity or software engineering.

Amaya’s advice for her underclassmen trying to reach the coveted top spots in their classes is to not be afraid to explore.

“Work hard at what you want to do, take a chance in exploring a new activity or trade,” she said.

In neighboring districts in Southold Town, the valedictorians and salutatorians are also all female.

Mattituck-Cutchogue’s valedictorian is Jessica Rakoczy and the salutatorian is Jenna Sledjeski. Southold’s valedictorian is Danna Duarte, and the salutatorian is Anna McCarthy. Greenport’s valedictorian is Lilliana Harbin and the salutatorian is Emma Mulhall.

Shoreham-Wading River is expected to announce its valedictorian and salutatorian by the end of this month.