Balancing all the elements of high school including classes, clubs and sports led Abigail Elenz to the No. 1 spot in her class.
“I didn’t do any sports until my junior year to kind of get a good foundation for my sophomore and freshman year,” said Elenz, reflecting on her path.
She eventually joined both the golf and tennis teams, while participating in orchestra and academic teams.
After years of hard work, she plans on attending Indiana University, Bloomington. She wants to major in law and public policy.
She got an early start on her future career her sophomore year through a project with the Y.M.C.A. Elenz and her partner submitted a proposal for Green Future Initiative, which they founded with the overall goal of creating more climate awareness around Northwest Indiana.
She and her partner were selected as finalists to represent the state of Indiana and were flown out to Washington, D.C., to present their proposal at a Youth and Government conference. They did not win, but Elenz was able to meet with Rep. Frank Mrvan and Sen. Mike Braun to talk about the project.
“I found [it] very inspirational and affirming since I already wanted a career in Law and Public Policy,” she said.
Elenz will be giving a speech tonight at graduation. She promises it will “definitely be inspirational.”
Part of Elenz’s success stemmed from being able to stay on top of her work. She recommends finding what works for you. Things like writing and analyzing your notes in ways that make sense to you help a lot when it comes to studying.
Another thing Elenz recommends is prioritizing.
“It’s not possible to do your best on every single assignment, so you have to figure out the best ways to divide your time and effort based on the work you have,” she said.
Participation is also important.
“Try to be engaged in class as much as you can and just try to pay attention and participate,” she said.
For Elenz, becoming valedictorian was an achievement that really displayed how hard she worked in school.
“It’s kind of validating for all of the work I put in and all the effort in all my classes and just trying to stay on top of everything so far.”
