Photo courtesy of Nicole Tugarinov

Ruth Shatkay poses at graduation, where she delivered a speech.

Each year, the Charles H. Rideout Award is given to the member of the senior class with the highest weighted GPA. The student then gives a speech at graduation.

This year, the honor was given to senior Ruth Shatkay, who will attend the University of Maryland in the fall. She said she was surprised upon receiving the award.

“I knew there was a chance I would receive the award for the past few months, but I was definitely surprised that I ended up receiving it,” said Shatkay.

She found out she won the award in late April, after being honored for being in the top five percent of her grade, academically.

“I think most people in the top five percent worked extremely hard throughout high school,” said Shatkay.

Having taken notoriously hard classes such as AP BC Calculus and Multivariable Calculus, Shatkay can say that she spent much of her time and energy during the past four years on schoolwork.

“I would say that I worked hard for all of high school. I put forth much more effort during junior and senior year, when I was taking more difficult classes,” she said. Shatkay’s weighted GPA, as of last semester, was 4.82.

However, she said she was not attempting to get the award as she earned good grades throughout high school.

“[My] work did not go into winning the award, it was just to do well in school,” said Shatkay.