Editor’s note: This is the first of two stories featuring the honored students across the county. The second story will appear in Friday’s edition.
Pandemics are no longer just something today’s students learn about in history or science class.
The COVID-19 public health crisis has upended normalcy around the world and thrown a monkey wrench into the routines and plans of high school students. Winners of Superintendent’s Awards typically have the recognition commemorated with a banquet dinner, but large gatherings are a no-no until the novel coronavirus is under control. Instead, the seniors selected for 2020 received their certificates from the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents in different, less ceremonial settings.
But, as Ralph C. Mahar Regional School Superintendent Elizabeth Teahan-Zielinski said, “Different doesn’t mean better or worse.”
The Superintendent’s Award for the Ralph C. Mahar Regional School District went to Astrid Conrod, the top-ranked student in the senior class.
“I would like to say that I am truly honored to have received this award. Although this past year has been difficult, I still tried to keep my head up and try my best in my academics,” Conrod said. “When I received the award, it motivated me to keep working in these difficult times.”
Conrod, of Orange, said she has not yet decided where she will attend college but has applied to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Boston University, New York University and Columbia University. She plans to study sociology but would like to explore other subjects and decide on the right career path for her.
Guidance counselor Caitlin McKenna wrote in a biography about the 17-year-old that Conrod is “a compassionate, thoughtful and open-minded young woman who excels in her coursework across the academic curriculum.”
“Astrid’s excellent academic skills have earned her a consistent place on the high honor roll every year,” McKenna said. “She was selected to receive the Smith College Book Award in junior year.”
Conrod is president of Student Council and previously served as a representative to the Student Council as well as the School Committee. She also started high school athletics by trying out for field hockey, but “found her true home on the cheering team for the next three years.”
She has also worked to improve school culture through Training Active Bystanders, working with middle-school students to address social aggression.
Isabelle Farrick won the Superintendent’s Award for the Gill-Montague Regional School District. Superintendent Brian Beck cited Farrick’s positive social impact on Turners Falls High School, where she was elected president of her class three years in a row, and her academic accomplishment of maintaining a grade average of 107 out of 100 in her junior and senior years.
Farrick said her favorite subject in school has been math, and she also enjoyed participating in Student Council.
“I’ve always really enjoyed our math classes,” she said of her experience at Turners Falls High School. “My AP calculus class in particular was really fun. There were only three of us. It’s fun to work with just the three of us to try to figure out how to do calculus.”
Farrick said she has applied to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, N.Y. She is considering studying computer science, engineering or math.
“It’s clear that Isabelle Farrick has left an incredible legacy of what an exceptional student takes from and gives back to their school community,” Beck said. “I have no doubt that she will continue to make the world a better place, as she has done in her own school and community.”
Deerfield resident Isabelle Brown has been named the recipient of this year’s Superintendent’s Award for the Frontier Regional School District.
“I’m really thankful,” Brown said. “I think it’s a really big honor. I know some of the other students who were considered … and I feel like it really could have been any of us.”
According to Superintendent Darius Modestow, Brown has maintained maximum honors and a 4.5 grade-point average during her time at Frontier.
“In addition to her academic success, she is serving as president of the Student Council, and has been a member since 2016,” Modestow said during a Frontier School Committee meeting. “She has been in class government since 2009 and has been a founding member and has been president of Interact, a community service club developed in 2019.”
She is also involved with the school Drama Club, having held leading roles in the shows “Annie” and “Harvey,” and is part of the school’s marching and jazz bands.
“Isabelle is just a fantastic person,” Modestow said. “She represents all the values Frontier wants to see in our students.”
After high school, Brown is considering several four-year liberal arts colleges across the country, and plans to study mathematics and classics. She also hopes to stay involved in music.
“One of the things when I was looking at schools was, ‘Does it have a pep band or marching band?’” she said.