"At the conclusion of the month, teachers nominate students for a myriad of reasons," explains Mike Rydell, Ellenville High School's Principal. "Sometimes it's strictly a scholarship type of achievement…another nomination could be a student has done something exemplary in the community-service realm."

The recognized students are: freshman Jillian Shamro, sophomore Charisse Bruce, junior Ana Flores, and senior Jose Negron.

Principal Rydell spoke a bit about how each student had earned the honor.

Jillian, says Principal Rydell, has "made a real smooth transition from middle school to high school, just really seemed to hit the ground running as she came into high school, and she's also an honor roll student involved with sports. She's just really striking that balance between high achievement in academics and also being involved with sports and clubs."

Charisse "was just consistently growing academically. She's been a high honor-roll student as a ninth grader, and that's continued as a tenth grader, but she's just been very dedicated in keeping her grades up," says the principal. "She's committed, and has exhibited tremendous commitment to staying on the high honor roll, and is just doing a tremendous job in the classroom."

Of Ana, Rydell is similarly effusive. "She's very deserving of the award as a junior," he says. "She is part of our student council, and she was involved with organizing the food drive this year, for which we are donating the food to the Family of Woodstock organization. She also is a high honor roll student. Truthfully, from the amount of things that she's involved with in the school, her grades, and everything she does, she could truly be a student of the month every month, but I'm really glad she was recognized at this time."

Finally, Rydell talks about the final student in this top-achieving foursome.

"Jose, our senior — his nomination revolved around his tremendous personal growth this year, achieving honor roll and really developing into a true leader in the building as a senior, and showing that commitment and hard work is going to get you the grades."

Look for future updates on EHS's top students as the school year rolls on…

COMMENTS about this article (4)