Salutatorian: Alessandra Riccio
We’ve all heard the saying about birds of a feather. And for Hicksville High School Class of 2014 salutatorian Alessandra Riccio the flock she was with pushed her to work harder and achieve more.
“People around me strived to do better in school and activities, and that pushed me to do better to keep up with them. I saw everyone else around me was doing it, so I was motivated,” says Riccio. “And
even working together in class or on a project and seeing different ideas, it makes you a better thinker and opens your mind to how you can approach situations—both in and out of school.”
She counts the top students in her class as some of her closest friends, and says being named the number two spot with a GPA of 102.82 is a great honor.
“It’s great to realize all your hard work for the past four years has paid off. It’s really rewarding,” Riccio says. “A lot of my friends were in the top, and everyone influenced me in that way. I’m glad I was able to be a part of that.”
In addition to her friends, Riccio says she was inspired to work hard by her cousin, who passed away two years ago.
“She worked hard, no matter how sick she was. She showed me that I can work hard too, because she kept going no matter what,” says Riccio. “She pushed me to go further and evoked my interest in the medical field.”
She also credits her calculus teacher Jason Cetron for being a constant source of support the past two years.
“He was more than a teacher, you could talk to him about anything. He was so understanding and encouraging,” Riccio says. “He would go out of his way to help you, he was there every day after school for as long as you needed him and to make you feel comfortable with the materials. He made you feel like you could accomplish anything, not just in school but in life.”
Riccio has an extensive list of extracurricular activities, including being a part of the swim team, numerous Honor Societies, Ecology club, Science Olympiad and Robotics team. She’s also worked as a swim instructor and volunteered as a Vacation Bible School teacher and at Winthrop University Hospital.
She says the activity she has the fondest memories of is the Olympics of the Visual Arts team. The team worked on an art project for several months, then traveled to Saratoga Springs, NY to compete against other schools. The past two years, the team has won third and second place, consecutively.
As she heads off to Stony Brook University in the fall to pursue a biochemical major with a pre-Physician’s Assistant track, she says she’ll miss the classmates she’s grown up with the past few years.
“I’ll miss seeing the same people every day. You go into college and it’s not the same people you’ve been with. It’s a new environment and before it was almost automatic; you knew everyone’s personality and sometimes you take that for granted until you realize you don’t have that anymore,” Riccio says.
