Dedication to school, having fun are key to top students' success

By Roni Gehlke
For the Contra Costa Times

What does it take to be the smartest of the smartest in your class and go home with the prize of valedictorian? According to Antioch High School's five valedictorians, it takes a lot of dedication, picking the right classes and most of all having fun.

"Remember to manage your time well," Julia Surges, one of the five 2010 valedictorians said. "Don't let procrastination be your best friend or it will kick you in the butt in the end and always have fun."
Surges and the other valedictorians will have a chance to speak to their classmates this evening at
Antioch High School's graduation ceremonies. Besides Surges, the five students chosen this year for valedictorian include Jana Cicerello, Amanda Dwyer and twins Kaitlin and Meghan Simarro. Chosen as the school's salutatorian was Kelsey Littell.

Each of the girls has attended Antioch High School for her entire high school term. They all attended Belshaw Elementary School and Park Middle School.

"It is important to challenge yourself and know that there is not a goal you can't reach," Meghan Simarro said. "Work hard. It worked for me in getting into the school I wanted to go to."

The next step for these girls is to take the skills they've learned and move on to college, according to Dwyer, 18, who plans on studying wildlife sciences at UC Davis in the fall.

While at Antioch High School Dwyer was on the cross country and track teams. She was also a member of the California Scholarship Federation club. While she also played tennis and soccer she was very dedicated to her classes, filling her schedule with as many science classes as she could fit in.

She isn't quite sure where her degree in wildlife sciences will take her, but she is hoping it will give her a chance to travel and study animals locally and throughout the world.

Dwyer credits her Uncle Doug as her inspiration to study science. "He's a biology teacher and really interested me in science," she said.

Surges will also be studying the sciences, but will be attending UC Berkeley in the fall to study biochemistry. She is hoping to move into a medical field of some kind in the future.

Surges spent a lot of her time at Antioch High School working on the student government and school site council. She was a member of CSF for two years. She also played volleyball and soccer. For 15 years outside of school, she participated in dance classes taking tap and jazz at a local school. She performed in many recitals over the years.

Last summer Surges was selected as a representative to the California Girls State, which is an organization that allows 500 girls from California to participate in a mock government group to see how the government runs and learn more about the system.

"I can't put my finger on one specific teacher who helped me in high school," she said. "All my teachers were great. In fifth grade, however, Mrs. Buckley pushed me harder to get better grades."
Twins Kaitlin and Meghan Simarro have pretty much followed the same path through their school years, but it wasn't the competition between the two girls that made Kaitlin be the best student she could be, it was following in her brothers' footsteps.

"You don't usually hear about twin girls and twin boys in one family, but we have them in mine,"
Kaitlin said about her twin brothers Ryan and Nathan. "My brothers grew up playing sports and also having good grades. I knew that if they could do it then I could do it too."

Kaitlin said that she really was good in sports and she didn't want to give it up, so she just had to work on her grades and make them good too.

Not only is Kaitlin one of the school's valedictorians, but she was also the school's Female Athlete of the Year. She played school soccer, softball, tennis and basketball. Outside of sports she has also taken several of the advanced placement classes, worked on the school newspaper and student government.
She has been accepted to UCLA, but has yet to pick a course of study. She is considering biological life sciences, but she wants to take a few classes and then make up her mind.

Her sister Meghan will also attend UCLA in the fall. She also has yet to pick a major, but she is hoping for something in the medical field.

While Meghan enjoys sports and has been involved with soccer, softball, tennis and basketball like her sister, she has also been a consistently exceptional student. In middle school she held a 4.0 GPA every year. When she moved to high school, she continued the trend, as well as played sports, worked in student government and for the past three years has written and worked for the school newspaper.

"My favorite story that I've written for the paper would have to be the one I wrote for the last issue on graduating high school and leaving it behind, remembering our roots and moving forward. This was a pro story and another student wrote a con story," Meghan said.

In eighth grade Meghan took a Spanish course to get prepared early her required language courses in high school. She found that she liked the classes so much she continued to take the classes until the AP course in her senior year.

Jana Cicerello plans to make her future in civil engineering. She has already been accepted at the University of the Pacific. While at Antioch High School she was a member of CSF and served as president. She was also a member of the Key Club and played varsity tennis.

The school's one salutatorian, Kelsey Littell, will also be going to college in the fall to study Civil Engineering. Littell has been accepted to Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. Littell said she would be taking after her father, Bart, who works as a civil engineer.

While at Antioch High School, Littell was involved in the Forensic Performance club, which did a lot speaking and debating activities. She also participated in the mock trial part of the group.
She received the Robert C. Byrd Honor Scholarship, which is a state scholarship for academic achievement. She also received a gold medal in the Academic Decathlon for receiving a perfect 1,000 score.

"I'd have to say my favorite teacher in high school is Mrs. Shawn Gilbert, my AP history teacher," Littell said. "She helped me do so well on the academic decathlon."