In The News: NHS's best and brightest

Nineteen valedictorians want to make the world a better place

Newberg High School’s 19 valedictorians for 2015 are a diverse group of students, but there may be one thread that unites them, aside from the fact that all of them finished with 4.0 grade-point averages in the honors program.

“There are so many different occupations that we’re looking into and so many different career paths,” Naivit Velazquez Sereno said. “That makes us so diverse, but also so united in that I think most of the careers that we’re going into are going to benefit the world. We’re not just going into careers that interest us, it’s more for the well-being of the rest of the world. I think that makes us different from other classes.”

Velazquez Sereno, for example, will attend Oregon State University to pursue a career in civil engineering, which she sees as the ultimate expression of her lifelong interest in design.

The varsity tennis player and prom committee member isn’t alone when it comes to studying engineering, as five other valedictorians plan to major in some form of engineering, making it the most popular choice in the group.

Specifically, three valedictorians — Mikayla Farr, Hayden Farrell and Wesley Chambers are headed into mechanical engineering.

Chambers, a track and cross-country runner who switched to water polo as a senior following a knee injury, plans to attend the University of Portland, as will future computer science major Noah Sperling.

“There are a lot of the valedictorians that want to be engineers and I know for me, specifically, I know that’s a lot of wanting to give back,” Chambers said. “I think for a lot of others it’s a similar reason.”

Farr and Farrell will both attend Oregon State University. In fact, Corvallis is the preferred destination for the high school’s best and brightest as well, as eight valedictorians plan to attend OSU.

A varsity soccer player and library volunteer, Farr said she is especially looking forward to spending her summer as a member of the 2015 Old Fashioned Festival Court.

Farrell, a varsity golfer and member of the Fellowship of Christian athletes, has been admitted to the Honors College and received the Oregon State Presidential Scholarship worth $10,000 per year, as well as the Glen and Juanita Struble Engineering Scholarship worth $3,000 annually.

Farrell, for one, is proud of how the class of 2015 has stuck together through thick and thin.

“We have endured many hardships in our four years, including the loss of our fellow classmates, but these events have only brought us closer together and made us stronger,” Farrell said. “They have taught us the true value of friendship and given us the ability to appreciate each other for who we are and leave little disputes out of sight and out of mind.”

Also receiving the OSU Presidential Scholarship will be FFA standout Margaret Halstead, who plans to study agronomy (soil and crop science).

Halstead, who also ran three years of track and cross country and was a member of the jazz ensemble for two, also sees this year’s group of valedictorians as focused on giving back.

“There is an element of optimism and hope for the future, like we can make it better,” Halstead said.

Also headed to Corvallis are Joseph Holtan, who will study chemical engineering; football and baseball player Colten Lemos, who will major in exploratory studies; AP Scholar and Academic Achievement Award winner Hannah Smith, who plans to study microbiology; and football and basketball standout Matthew Springer, who will be a business major.

Also staying close to home will be Micah Sharp, who will attend Corban University in Salem to study pastoral ministry. He appreciated the opportunity to earn a lot of college credit at NHS, but feels he is leaving high school with something deeper and more important.

“I felt like I learned a lot of things, but more it changed the way that I thought about the world,” Sharp said. “The way that I look at things now is different, which in a lot of ways, especially for college and life, can be more important than your head knowledge but the lens you see the world through. It’s done a pretty good job at preparing us for that.”

Senior Tori Eichten, who was also named the school’s top female senior athlete after a decorated career in cross-country, basketball and golf, will attend Lewis & Clark College to study biology. A four-time state qualifier on the links, Eichten will also play golf for the Pioneers.

Mikhalea Nadora, a thespian and accomplished dancer who served as National Honor Society secretary, won’t be far away either, as she plans to study graphic design at Portland State.

“I do see a lot of potential in us and a lot of motivation to be successful,” Nadora said. “That’s what ties us together.”

Several valedictorians have elected to leave Oregon behind and explore the rest of the country, including Olivia Pugsley, Brynn Akins, Tate Masse, Angel Nunez, Kasey Fish and Elijah Gonzalez.

Smith, who danced at the Oregon Ballet Theatre and served as a student representative on the Newberg School District board for two years, is headed to Smith College in Massachusetts to study biochemistry and statistics, while Gonzalez will major in materials engineering at California Polytechnic State University.

Fish, who played football, basketball, track, water polo and wrestled at Newberg, will also head south to California, as he plans to play football and study political science at the University of the Redlands.

Nunez, a standout and prolific musician, will study chemistry at Oberlin College in Ohio, while Akins is head to Messiah University in Pennsylvania to major in social work.

“We’re very diverse,” Akins said. “Our whole class has very different personalities, but people really want to make something of themselves and their lives for the good of others.”

Akins also believes that in the end, Newberg High School offers so many opportunities that it is what you make of it.

“You can take it pretty easily here, but if you’re wanting to challenge yourself and take those harder classes and really get something out of them, then you can do that,” she said.

Masse will eventually attend Brigham Young University in Utah, but will first spend two years on mission in Montreal, Canada. He said he appreciates what it’s taken for each of the valedictorians to make it where they are.

“We each have our different goals and some of us are insanely smart, so you go into a class and they didn’t have to work at all and they got straight As and that’s how they’re valedictorian,” Masse said. “Then there are other kids that are just always studying, they worked their butts off all the way through high school and that’s how they became valedictorian.”

The class of 2015 also features five salutatorians, all of whom finished with 4.0 grade-point averages taking a non-honors curriculum.

Hayley Koskela may be headed further abroad than any 2015 NHS graduate, as she plans to major in international relations at the University of St. Andrew’s in Scotland.

Brooklyne Hazenberg, a member of the school-record-setting 4 x 100 relay team as a senior, will join Gonzalez at Cal Poly as a biology major, while equestrian standout Kearsten Friedrich plans to attend Portland Community College and the University of Montana to become a veterinarian.

Salutatorian Kassandra Allison will attend Pacific University, but is undecided on her major, while Jesse Comfort has elected to join the workforce after graduation.

Written by: Seth Gordon