Longtime friends Jessica Park and Ava Liebmann earn top distinction as Rye Neck High School’s Class of 2022 Valedictorian and Salutatorian!

Jessica Park (valedictorian) and Ava Liebmann (salutatorian) have attended all four school’s in the Rye Neck School District—and have been friends for as long as they can remember (although they both agree their friendship became extra strong in 4^th grade at F.E. Bellows Elementary). When reflecting back at their experiences growing up, and embracing Rye Neck’s academics and extracurriculars – they both shared many memories of field trips, teachers who went the extra mile to connect abstract topics into accessible information, and the smaller things too—like special hot chocolate days for students on a cold winter day, or enjoying various class pets (most notably, a hamster!). These two friends are excited to graduate and also took some time to reflect on what their years at Rye Neck have been like as graduation approaches in just a few weeks!

Jessica Park has committed to Cornell University for this coming fall. She’s excited to head off to college, but with graduation quickly approaching, it’s also bittersweet. Throughout her time at Rye Neck, starting at Daniel Warren Elementary, she always had an interest, curiosity, and spark for science. When Jessica started middle school, she then went on to create and start the Environmental Club—and it’s continued to grow its membership into Rye Neck High School. When asked what prompted Jessica to start this club, she shared, “I’ve always been interested in nature and animals, and in 7^th grade, I noticed litter on the ground and streets. It was disheartening to see this, so I made it a goal to help. My friends and I met with our principal (Dr. Lutinski, who is now our district’s Superintendent) and created a plan for the club. The goal was ambitious but clear: raise awareness on keeping our community clean!”

Fast forward to senior year, and Jessica has participated in Science Olympiad (senior year and sophomore year) and worked on a project studying ornithology (birds). She studied different bird calls, had to recognize different birds, knowing facts about them, and also learning their Latin names. One of the challenging classes she took as a junior last year was A.P. Chemistry; and this year, one of the challenging classes she took was A.P. Calculus BC. When outside of school, Jessica’s passion for nature is greeted firsthand by once in a lifetime opportunities—like spending summers in Costa Rica working with sea turtles! In fact, during a 1-week program, Jessica helped biologists with their research on sea turtles by collecting birth weights, tracking data, counting eggs, and even got to hold baby sea turtles!

What made Jessica’s senior year extra special was having the opportunity to enjoy the new state of the art science wing!  “It’s great! It was so exciting when we first got to enter the building and classrooms for the first time…. It’s a great addition to campus. I remember, I felt like we were in a movie!”

When asked what advice she would give to students at Rye Neck, Jessica shared, “build good study habits, enjoyed challenging yourself, and understanding how things work.” She added, “try not to take yourself too seriously. When I was a freshman, everything seemed like a big deal, and a little scary, but you don’t need to worry.”

Much like Jessica, Ava Liebmann also has a passion for science. She was a Science Research Student through all four years of high school and placed 4th at the 2021 WESEF Science Fair (she studied the effect of heat stress on the function of RuBisCo, an enzyme that catalyzes photosynthesis in plants!).

Ava took great pride participating in the Rye Neck Science Olympiad while in high school and was captain her sophomore and senior year. She also had the opportunity to compete with schools in the tri-state area! In 10^th, 11^th, and 12^th grade, Ava participated in Rye Neck’s Mock Trial (was Captain her senior year).  When asked to share what this experience was like, Ava explained how all students were assigned a role—and Ava was on the Defense.

Athletics is also important to Ava—she’s spent years on a local crew team as coxswain (outside of Rye Neck). She received the Most Valuable Rower award, and earned 5th Place in women's U17 4+ at U15/U17 Nationals. On Varsity Crew (10-12 gradues) she helped earn 3rd place in the women’s U19 4+ at Youth Nationals, 3rd place in the Junior Women’s 8+ at 2022 Head of the Charles, 6th Place in the women's coxed quad at 2019 Head of the Charles, 2nd Place in the men’s U17 4+ at 2019 Club Nationals.

From volunteering in the Midnight Run to spending time at a nature center caring for animals, Ava has been active within the Rye Neck community and beyond!

Congratulations to Jessica and Ava!