DENNIS FOX AND CHRISTINA COYNE

VALEDICTORIAN

CHRISTINA COYNE

Longwood valedictorian Christina Coyne said she’s always tried to find the fun in her schoolwork and extracurricular activities. She thinks having fun is the key to achieving great things.

“It’s easier to do well when you enjoy what you’re doing,” she said.

Christina will graduate from Longwood with a whopping 101.4 GPA and head to Stony Brook University, where she’ll major in linguistics in the university’s Honors College. After college, she’d love to pursue a career teaching English as a Second Language.

Christina, who has taken 10 Advanced Placement courses, has been honored as an AP Scholar and was awarded the Presidential Scholarship from Stony Brook. She’s played clarinet in the Pit Bulls Orchestra, the Concert Band and the Marching Band, and coaches new clarinet players.

She also paints, draws and creates pottery in the Art Honor Society and is a member of her school’s environmental club. Her community service involvement ranges from participation in Rotary Interact, Relay for Life and Invisible Children, to volunteering at Kent Animal Shelter in Calverton.

As an underclassmen, she played soccer and ran track.

She said she’d tell the next group of seniors “to really focus on your school work and try to manage your time.”

And above all else, she said to “make sure you’re having fun.”

SALUTATORIAN

DENNIS FOX

During high school, Dennis Fox took on an intense course load and packed after-school schedule, and now he can celebrate his success.

An academic achiever, athlete, musician and Eagle Scout, Dennis will leave Longwood as salutatorian, with a 100.7 GPA, and head to Cornell University in the fall.

Out of the 11 Advanced Placement courses Dennis enrolled in throughout his high school career, biology has always been his first love. He’ll major in biology at Cornell and plans to take a career in biological research after college graduation.

Dennis ran cross country and spring and winter track in high school, and played the tenor saxophone in the Jazz Band and the alto saxophone in the concert band. He also sang in the school’s chorus. He said fitting in every sports and music activity he wanted to participate in was trying at times.

“It’s really a balancing act,” he said.

As an Eagle Scout, Dennis refurbished and installed a gazebo and planted a bed of flowers beside it at St. Anthony’s RC Church in Rocky Point. He’s also restored an old schoolhouse in Bartlett Pond Park in Middle Island and decorated graves at Calverton National Cemetery on Memorial Day.

He said he’s had to make some social life sacrifices in the name of academics to get this far, but he doesn’t regret it.

And his advice for the next crop of seniors?

“Have fun with what you like and work hard at what you don’t like,” he said.

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