Lincoln High honors its top students
LINCOLN – In a breakfast reception on Wednesday, Lincoln High School administrators announced the top 10 ranked students in the Class of 2017, with Ross Lancaster and Matthew Mardo taking the top two spots.
“Your success wasn’t a gift. Nobody gave you this,” Lincoln Town Administrator T. Joseph Almond told the students in presenting citations. “It’s obvious you really had to work hard.”
In order from valedictorian to number 10, the top students in the Class of 2017 are Lancaster, Mardo, Michael Matkowski, Brandon Bisbano, Amanda Broadmeadow, Matthew Salemi, Kathryn Packard, Jessica O’Neill, Ailsa Ferland and Drew Abram.
Along with parents, atten- dees at the breakfast included Principal Kevin McNamara, Superintendent Georgia Fortunato, Business Manager Lori Miller and Lincoln High School guidance staff.
“I think this class is truly committed to not just holding the leadership positions they have, but in making a difference in their school,” McNamara told The Call. He added that the leadership positions will always be there but it’s about what students do with those positions and if they take their roles to the next level.
Ferland is president of National Honor Society, for example, while Packard is coeditor-in-chief of The Lion’s Roar, the student newspaper.
In the fall, these students are off to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Harvard University, Bryant University,
Boston College, University of Rochester, Emmanuel College, North Carolina State University, George Washington University and Boston College.
Valedictorian Ross Lancaster will be studying chemical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where Matthew Salemi is also going.
“I’ve always been interested in the little things, like how stuff is together – just on the molecular level – and I want to do that,” Lancaster said. “That’s just the most fascinating thing ever.”
He plans to eventually go into materials science or chemical processing. While Lancaster would love to work in the nuclear field, he fears it’s a dying job field.
Outside of the classroom, Lancaster said that in college, he’s “really amped to do some Ultimate Frisbee. I’ve always loved that. It’s time.”
One of his favorite high school memories was on his sophomore year band trip to California. Despite an exhaustive schedule, he and his friends ordered pizza one night at 1 a.m.
“We had a blast, and something went down that we were laughing the whole time,” he said.
Lancaster played trombone in the concert band and jazz band all four years at Lincoln High School, and he was also on the math team – he was captain this year – all four years. He was class president sophomore year and was on the tech crew for the Variety Show last year.
Lancaster works parttime at Five Guys and has volunteered at Camp Invention, which he describes as a “nonprofit summer camp that tries to get kids interested in science and try to keep American ingenuity alive.” Lincoln has one of only three program locations in Rhode Island.
Salutatorian Matthew Mardo, meanwhile, has volunteered through his involvement with the Life Society. It’s an after-school club whose members have volunteered at soup kitchens, cleaned up the Blackstone River, raised awareness about recycling and raised money for the Family Literacy Center.
Mardo has been vice president of the Class of 2017 for four years. He was vice president of the Rhode Island chapter of Future Business Leaders of America for one year, and he served as presi- dent of the club at Lincoln High School for three years.
Mardo played varsity soccer for three years and was team captain this past year. He has also danced and played guitar in the Variety Show.
When he joined the Variety Show his sophomore year, he had never danced before, but he decided to take a chance.
“I did it sophomore year and I loved it so much, and going into junior year, which I knew was going to be my hardest year, it was something I knew, even with all the APs and work I was going to have, I didn’t want to give that up,” he said.
Mardo has taken eight AP classes while Lancaster has taken nine. Thankfully, by the time the breakfast rolled around on Wednesday morning, they had finished all of their tests for this year.
Mardo will be attending Harvard University in the fall.
“When I went there and visited, it was a really just intellectually stimulating environment, and the people you meet there are from all over the world,” he said.
Mardo will be studying neurobiology, and he plans to later get a Ph.D. and go into research.
“I think it’s amazing the versatility of the brain being able to do different things,” Mardo said.”It’s such an important and great thing to want to know how to understand.”
Mardo said that Lincoln High School AP Biology teacher Graham Souness, who holds a Ph.D. in molecular endocrinology, inspired him to study neurobiology. For Mardo, the teachers and the students surrounding him have been the best part of his high school experience.
“When you’re taking the hardest classes, you’re getting the teachers who are the most knowledgeable in the subject and definitely the most passionate in the subject, and it definitely shows,” he said.
Lancaster also gave a shout-out to teachers, saying that math teacher Paul Ruhle “is a life-changer” and that “you just gotta have him.”
In introducing the top 10 students, school guidance director Anne-Marie VanNieuwenhuize noted that both Drew Abram and Matthew Salemi cited Ruhle and his calculus classes as being instrumental to their high school experience.
As he prepares to graduate, Lancaster has some advice for the underclassmen: “Be an individual. I always say, ‘Don’t light yourself on fire to keep someone else warm.’ You gotta do you.”