WOODBURY- As the Class of 2026 starts to finalize their decisions on what they are doing after high school, and are getting closer to their graduation date, the senior class top ten percent is celebrated. The top ten percent is a reflection of all of the work the seniors have done throughout high school. It takes into account all of the grades and classes you have taken since the first day of freshman year.

Years of Hard Work

Nineteen students received the honor of being in the top ten percent of seniors this year. Among the top ten percent members of the Class of ‘26 are Nonnewaug’s most hard working and prestigious students. This year’s class ranking includes Billy Herr as Valedictorian, Salutatorian Gillian Fernandes, and Essayist Grace Rubacha. Here is four of the top ten percent students’ advice on how to work towards earning this prestige.

Sophia Garguilo:

“Over the years I have really pushed myself during school to get into the top ten percent,” said Garguilo who will attend Auburn University this fall to study veterinary science. “Not only do you have to work hard in school to get in the top ten, but you have to put in a lot of effort outside of school to keep up with your work.”

Ella Brown:

“I’ve tried to take classes that challenge me more each year, and put my best effort into them even if they were difficult,” says Brown. Brown was one of two students who NHS foreign language faculty Kate Peterson spoke for. Brown will attend McGill University in Montreal this fall. “I think that the main thing is consistency across all of high school and trying my best inside and outside of class time.”

Gillian Fernandes:

“In the past four years, I have taken 9 APs in total (1 sophomore year, 5 junior year, and 3 senior year),” said Fernandes. Fernandes will be attending McGill this coming fall semester. “I allocated a lot of time to my studies to ensure I understood all the content I was learning. During all four years, I also kept up the rigor via Honors and ECE courses. I did not have any study halls sophomore-senior year, and I only had one freshman year.”

Billy Herr:

“Over the past 4 years I have pushed myself repeatedly. I have taken 13 AP classes and I took 6 my senior year which is something that not a lot of people do,” Herr said. Herr will take advantage of UConn’s valedictorian scholarship that affords him free tuition for his four years in Storrs. “I have also made sure to go out of my way to talk to teachers and let them know I care about their class. I have also made a point to ask for extra practice before tests in class.” 

“The Speech” 

Every year students who are chosen for the top ten percent banquet at Nonnewaug High School pick a teacher to represent them at the banquet. These teachers need to find a way to represent that student within one speech. 

Students usually pick teachers who know a lot about them or that they have built a strong relationship with. Senior Sophia Garguilo shares why she picked library media specialist Deborah Flaherty as the teacher writing her speech.

“Choosing Mrs. Flaherty was the person giving my speech because she has always been a supportive person I can turn to,” said senior Sophia Garguilo. “She is also my track coach so I have spent so much time with her in and outside of school”

The teachers who come up with these speeches try to find creative ways to add students’ personalities into the speech. English teacher Benjamin Guerette shares how he came up with his speech for senior Grace Rubacha. 

“Grace is really sarcastic and really funny so I thought, all right, I’m going to try to be sarcastic and funny,” says Guerette. “And she has insulted me a lot over the years so I kind of wanted to share her funniest insults.”

Video game design teacher, Katie Blake shares her inspiration for the senior speech show wrote on behalf of Delia Coelho,

“We have spent a lot of time together, and I’ve learned that Delia and her family play a lot of Mario Kart together,” says Blake. “So, I wrote my speech around the things that happen while playing the game of Mario Kart.”