Yonkers Middle High School Valedictorian Katie Molina-Salazar, right and
Salutatorian Penelope Cloonan, left
By Dan Murphy
Congratulations to Yonkers Middle-High School Valedictorian Katie Molina-Salazar, and Salutatorian Penelope Cloonan.
Katie Molina-Salazar will graduate with an exceptional 103.48 GPA, earning the distinguished honor of possessing the highest weighted grade point average among the entire 12th-grade graduating class of Yonkers Public Schools.
One of her favorite teachers is Anthropology teacher Adam Thiessan. “She can pull off teaching Anthropology by making it interesting. I have had so much fun in this class, I decided to take it again as an elective. I could have gone home early but decided to stay,” said Molina-Salazar, who also added that her favorite class was IB Anthropology.
Katie has completed 10 AP and IB courses at YHS and has served in the Key Club as Vice-President. “The Key Club at our school was losing steam for a couple of years. Last year we increased participation and now have 65 students.” A recent Yonkers High School YHS Key Club event was writing letters of appreciation to teachers.
Molina-Salazar also was named Captain of the Yonkers High School Varsity Girls Soccer team. “I love soccer and my fellow teammates. Being Captain helped me learn leadership and communication skills.”
Katie will be attending Massachusetts Institute of Technology “MIT” in the fall. “I went to a summer session at MIT for 6 weeks. I thought it was a great challenge for me with an emphasis on collaboration. I’m excited to attend.
“In my future I hope to study Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT. I look forward to maybe even going to grad school. I’m not too sure if I want to continue in Civil and Environmental Engineering or if I would like to study something else. If not grad school, I hope to be able to attain a stable job in engineering and stand on my own two feet. My sister is also in Massachusetts, so I have someone close.”
Katie said “ I wasn’t really paying attention to my class ranking until my counselors told me about it. I didn’t want to put too much pressure on myself, and just wanted to get through my classes and do my best.
“My parents played a large role in my success, and my older sister. There were times that I underestimated myself and thought I couldn’t do it. She always had confidence in me and pushed me and reminded me to take the harder classes.”
Any advice for future high school students? “I would tell them to “use it or lose it.” In my anthropology class, we watched an investigation on happiness and dopamine depletion, and we discovered that if we don’t engage in dopamine boosting activities, we can have reduced levels of dopamine in the body. So, use the dopamine receptors, do things that make you happy, talk to people and make friends, listen to music, stay active, and be kids.”
Yonkers High School Salutatorian Penelope Cloonan will graduate with a 102.65 weighted GPA. One of her favorite teachers is English teacher Mr. Mouzon. “He was amazing and is able to make old works entertaining and modern.”
Penelope has enjoyed comic books since she was young. “I wasn’t allowed to watch Nickelodeon or Disney growing up. So, I read a lot of comics and got into Superheroes.
Her favorite course at Yonkers Middle High School was Biology. “I wanted to be in the medical field since middle school, and more recently, I want to be a doctor.”
Penelope loved being part of the YPIE Science Research Program, where she got to learn from mentors at Regeneron. It was a fantastic opportunity that she thoroughly enjoyed. “I was able to get 12 credits and learned a lot.”
Cloonan has also enjoyed her work experience at the Hudson River Museum as a Junior Docent. “I love the program. I lot of my work is with kids in science workshops. I enjoy seeing the kids when they enjoy learning. That was exactly where I wanted to be.”
Penelope will be attending Case Western University in Cleveland. “I wanted to work in a research hospital at college. I applied to Case Western on a whim when I heard about their Biology-Chemistry program. I visited and they have a medical school, so I can start a little bit early in my career. I want to be on the patient side of medicine and help improve changes in treatment in gynecology.”
“My mom helped me and drove me to places at 4:30 in the morning for the science Olympiad and other events.”
Penelope said she and Katie became friends in the 10th grade in AP Chemistry. “We bonded and took IB Physics together. It wasn’t a competition between us but I checked my ranking every time I could. I wanted to be in the top 5, so when I found out that I was #2 and was glad.
Advice for future students? “Read; read a ton. Doesn’t matter what you read. If it’s academic, great, you can learn about the world and maybe get a leg up in class. If it’s not academic, wonderful, you’re having a great time, you can probably still practice analytical skills and learn some fun facts.”
