Sadeh and Meach named valedictorian, salutatorian at HVRHS

FALLS VILLAGE — The top-ranking students in the class of 2026 at Housatonic Valley Regional High School attribute a great deal of their success to the dedicated teachers they’ve had over the last four years.

Valedictorian Ibby Sadeh and salutatorian Alexa Meach emphasized during a recent interview the important role many of the educators played in helping them achieve scholastic honors.

“We had great teachers,” said Sadeh, 17. “They were very approachable.” Sadeh, of Falls Village, and the daughter of Jaimie and Shamu Sadeh, is an alum of Lee H. Kellogg School, graduating in a class of nine. “It was definitely a weird transition coming into a class of 85, but all the freshmen teachers were so nice.”

She also said surrounding yourself with like-minded students makes for a successful high school career. A self-starter, she has always strived for good grades. “I put pressure on myself. My parents didn’t push me.”

Meach, 18, daughter of Jennifer and Robert Meach of Canaan, agreed, saying, “All the people and teachers here helped a lot. You find people and settle in. You get out of it what you put into it.”

Both serve on the school’s Class Council and are members of Next Women. Sadeh is part of The Lakeville Journal high school journalism program that produces HVRHS Today, the newspaper that is created by the students with staff from The Lakeville Journal, and a member of the Housatonic Musical Theater Society, which is putting on “Guys and Dolls” this week. Meach, an animal lover, works at H.H.H. Canine Lodge & Ranch in East Canaan.

Sadeh said her favorite courses at Housatonic were history and humanities, but while she has not declared any major when she begins at Tufts University in the fall, she is leaning toward science. For Meach, language and composition, environmental science and AP literature were among her favorite classes. She plans to study political science at New York University.

“2016 sparked me,” she said. “I stay up on current events. People in my family have differing views. There are multiple opinions in our conversations.”

Teachers such as Letitia Garcia Tripp, Damon Osora and Lori Bucco stood out and the pair also noted that American history with Peter Vermilyea was memorable.

They said they look forward to moving on with both trepidation and excitement.