The Harlem Valley's top graduates: Millbrook

Millbrook valedictorian

MILLBROOK — Julia Ouimet, Millbrook High School valedictorian, believes that attending Millbrook High School was great because students can participate in so many activities from sports to music and drama.

The graduating class of 2010 is the first class to attend all four years in the new high school building. Oiumet said that some people say their grade is the one that gets everything.  It was the first eighth-grade to go to Washington, D.C., and the first class to take a trip to London. But she wished the grade wasn’t so separated into honors courses; but despite that, she said you know everyone in the school.

Oiumet, who will be attending Tufts University and majoring in biochemistry this fall, is aiming at a career in epidemiology researching the cause of diseases. She is the recipient of the Tribute Gardens Scholarship for $20,000, as well as academic excellence awards in English, Science  and the Millbrook High School PRIDE award with Jonathan Campbell

But this year’s top senior did more than excel in just academics. In addition to the field hockey team, Ouimet was the editor of the school newspaper and made all the costumes for “Beauty and the Beast.â€� She helps to run the “Battle of the Booksâ€� summer program at the library  and has interned at the Cary Institute.

Along with salutatorian Jarred Hoyt, Ouimet laughed about the success they had in participating in a fundraiser for Haiti where students bid on teams of teachers. The winning teachers agreed to dance to a Beyonce video for the students. Asked if there was a separation between students involved in sports and those focusing on academics, Ouimet said, “The geeks are the jocks. There were five football players in our AP English class.�

Aside from academics and school activities, Ouimet has personal passions. Ouimet’s passion, influenced by her father, is bicycling and she often rides 25 miles a day. She says that she “wears her spandex proudly.�

Another passion is her love of reading, both assigned books and those she finds on her own. Oiumet discovered the series “His Dark Materials,â€� by Philip Pullman, at a yard sale. She also mentioned Faulkner’s, “As I Lay Dying,â€� which was assigned by Mr. Fiorenza. 

This summer Oiumet will continue her job at Merritt Bookstore, where she has been employed since eighth grade. While there she’ll have plenty of time to contemplate her future. Ouimet is concerned about the size of her college loans and getting a job.  She also commented that she would be going to a big city from the “Bubble of Millbrook, where everyone knows each other.â€� she said.

In the meantime Ouimet has been searching on the Internet for quotes from the “usual inspiration figures� for her graduation speech. Whatever she comes up with will likely be sure to move her fellow classmates, as they transition from seniors to graduates with the flip of the tassel.

Millbrook salutatorian

MILLBROOK — Jarred Hoyt, class salutatorian, talked with The Millerton News upstairs at the Merritt Bookstore last week before graduation and the final physics Regents. He was surprisingly cool and collected.

Hoyt said his high school experience was mainly positive, and that the Millbrook teachers are “really cool.�

His focus throughout his scholastic career was beyond mere academics. It also focused on music, and he was on the varsity soccer team and “threw things for the track and field team,â€� including discus, shot and javelin. 

He has been accepted at SUNY Potsdam’s 100-year-old Crane School of Music after submitting a CD sampler and then giving a live performance audition. Hoyt wants to be an opera singer despite the daunting odds of success. Hoyt, who split the $35,000 music scholarship with Scott Groffman and Brendan McGuckin, feels fortunate that he can attend an excellent public university. He received Academic Excellence awards in Social Studies, Instrumental and Performing Arts (he plays the trumpet) and Vocal Performing Arts, as well as the Triple A Award with Anna Gagnon. 

“Everybody does everything because the school is so small. It would be very different if we went to Arlington, where we would have to limit ourselves to one sport or other activity,� he said.

Hoyt was a Madrigal Singer, first trumpet in the jazz band and a star in “Beauty and the Beast.� He was also active in the Rotary Outreach Interact program where high school students volunteer to run blood drives, prepare meals for the homeless and trick or treat for canned goods.

He said his AP courses were his favorites and agreed that the best classes involved discussion and student participation.

Hoyt’s passion is music and acting, and he adores that “great feeling of being on stage.� But he also shares a love of reading, with valedictorian Julia Oiumet, both of assigned books and those they find by themselves. Hoyt has read the entire “Lord of the Rings� and “Hobbit.� Hoyt’s favorite was “The Great Gatsby.�

This summer Hoyt will be a counselor at the town of Washington morning camp and is looking for more paid hours to save money for college.

Asked if there was anything worrying him, Hoyt seemed confident but realistic about what the future holds. He knows the odds of making it as an opera star, but has decided “to go for it.â€� That sense of adventure mixed with and confidence and self-knowledge is evident even in Hoyt’s possible  graduation speech — he’s considering performing. How perfect is that?