Tolland High School Announces Top 2 Students

Tolland High School this week issued the following news release regarding the top two students in the Class of 2013: 

Ms. Dominique Fox, Principal of Tolland High School, is pleased to announce that Garret Tirrell has been named the valedictorian of the Class of 2013 and Mary Trainor has been named the salutatorian of the Class of 2013.

Let’s start with the Class Salutatorian, Mary Trainor.  

Mary has distinguished herself through her exemplary work ethic, level of maturity, and unflappable manner while a student at Tolland High School.  Academically, Mary has taken, and excelled, in the most challenging academic program offered at the school. Regardless of academic discipline, Mary’s work is meticulous, and demonstrates both depth of understanding as well as breadth of knowledge that characterize a scholar. Mary has received numerous academic awards, including election to the National Honor Society, the Mount Holyoke College Book Award, and selection as Tolland High School’s nominee for the Governor’s Scholar Award. Mary is the editor for the Class of 2013 yearbook.  Mary’s most notable community accomplishment is the development of a tap dance class for inner city youth.  In addition to teaching the lessons, Mary has also run shoe and clothing drives to provide the students with needed dance wear. Mary is a dancer with many years of experience on her dance school’s competitive team and teaches younger students.  She is also a religious education teacher at her church. Mary’s outstanding academic ability, commitment to her school and community, and personal character will allow her to find much success as she pursues a degree in political science at the University of Notre Dame.

Finally, I am pleased to announce the Class of 2013 class valedictorian, Garret Tirrell. 

Garret is a highly motivated, independent, and extremely well-rounded.  Overall excellence best describes Garret’s academic success at Tolland High School.  He has consistently demonstrated outstanding academic achievement in all subject areas, and has taken the most challenging course load offered at Tolland High School. Although his natural strengths and interests lie in math and science, Garret performs equally well in areas that require strong written and oral language skills.  He has received numerous academic awards throughout high school primarily in math, science and Spanish. Add to this list a Scholastic Art Award for his drawing, and being Tolland’s nominee for the Wendy’s High School Heisman award and the picture of Garret as a Renaissance-type scholar is complete. Garret has been active in the school and community, most notably as a volunteer to clean-up after the major storms of the past two years, as well as belonging to a number of school activities including among others the National Honor Society, Junior Engineering Team, literary magazine, and playing both hockey and baseball. The combination of excellence in the classroom, exemplary performance on standardized assessments such as the Connecticut Academic Performance Test and College Board tests, and active participation and involvement in the school and community all predict a successful collegiate career for Garret as he pursues a degree in applied mathematics at the University of Connecticut.

Please take an opportunity to congratulate both Garret and Mary on their outstanding accomplishment!