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May 18, 2006
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May 18, 2006 |
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Top scholars named for YSHS Class of 2006
Looking back over her high school career, Tina Chen isn’t quite sure how she managed to do it all — she played soccer in the fall, swam in winter and played tennis in spring; took part in School Forest, Quick Recall, United Society and Mock Trial; studied piano seriously and served as piano accompanist for the last several high school musicals. Oh yes, and with her seven-semester grade point average of 4.170, she also managed to emerge as the valedictorian for the Yellow Springs High School Class of 2006. Carey Dixon is the class salutatorian. The Class of 2006 will graduate on Thursday, June 1, at 7:30 p.m., in the high school gym. There’s nothing magical about her achievements, Chen said. It’s hard work, pure and simple, she said, along with learning to get by on little sleep. “It takes motivation, putting in your top effort in all classes,” she said. “If you’re motivated you can do whatever you want.” Chen credits her family — her father, C.T., who teaches computer science at Antioch College, her mother, Kay, who works at the Dayton post office, and her brother, Andy, the valedictorian of the YSHS Class of 2004 — with helping to instill in her the value of working hard and getting the best education she could during her high school career. Next fall, Chen will continue her education at the University of Cincinnati, where she has been accepted into an eight-year program that combines an undergraduate biology major with automatic admission to medical school. While she has always been interested in math and science, she said her passion for the sciences intensified two summers ago during a program she took at Wright State University. It was her first time working in an actual lab, she said, and she found it fascinating. Chen moved with her family to the area when she was 5, attending Indian Valley elementary school in Enon before entering the McKinney School in eighth grade. Her experience in the Yellow Springs schools has been overwhelmingly positive, Chen said, attributing her enthusiasm for the schools to a combination of small class size and dedicated teachers who “emphasize learning for yourself. You develop relationships with all of your teachers.” “I get a warm feeling when I come to school,” she said. With only a few months left before she begins college, Chen knows what she wants to do over the summer. “I’ll try to soak up Yellow Springs while I still can,” she said. Dixon claims that he actually isn’t that good at managing his time, but he somehow managed to combine a very busy high school schedule with exceptionally high achievement. During his four years at YSHS, Dixon said, he took part in soccer, tennis, cross country and swimming, Mock Trial, Quick Recall, School Forest and TEAMS. Dixon, who has a seven-semester GPA of 4.106, lives with his father, Gary Dixon, his mother, Dr. Nancy Hesz, and his sister Rosa, a sophomore at YSHS. He was born in England, where his mother was attending medical school, and he got an early start in school as a 4-year-old there. The family then moved to Troy and from there to Yellow Springs when Dixon was 7. He attended Mills Lawn School for two years before attending the Antioch School from third through sixth grades. The Antioch School’s emphasis on allowing children to follow their own interests in learning worked very well for him, Dixon said. Because he loved math, he was encouraged to take his interest as far as he could, and when he entered seventh grade at McKinney, he said, he was ready to plunge into high school algebra. Dixon said his experience at McKinney and YSHS has been a good one. “Most of my teachers have been very helpful with helping me do what I want to do,” he said. Next year, Dixon plans to attend Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Beyond that, he said, he is still undecided about his future plans, but whatever they are, they will most likely involve some combination of math and science. Contact: dchiddister@ysnews.com
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