{"id":95863,"date":"2014-08-27T08:31:20","date_gmt":"2014-08-27T12:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=95863"},"modified":"2015-10-02T14:42:30","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T18:42:30","slug":"manchesters-top-ranked-two-among-honors-freshmen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2014\/08\/manchesters-top-ranked-two-among-honors-freshmen\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester\u2019s Top-ranked Two Among Honors Freshmen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Megan Boyer and Sarah Robbins, valedictorian and salutatorian respectively of Manchester High School\u2019s Class of 2014, have marked many milestones together. Now the two friends are following similar, yet divergent paths, as incoming freshmen in UConn\u2019s Class of 2018.<\/p>\n

\"Incoming<\/a>
Incoming freshmen Megan Boyer, left, and Sarah Robbins, valedictorian and salutatorian respectively from Manchester High School, outside the Wilbur Cross Building. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Friends since middle school, both have ambitious plans for medical careers and are eager to continue their education. They\u2019re in good company, joining just over 500 other incoming high-achieving students entering UConn\u2019s Honors Program<\/a>. Both enter the University with a number of college credits from AP courses and UConn Early College Experience courses taken in high school. Both are also among some 80 new Honors students choosing a course of study in UConn\u2019s STEM programs: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.<\/p>\n

Boyer wants to major in biological sciences with a pre-medical track and a goal of becoming a pediatrician. Robbins plans to major in pathobiology, then on to medical school to specialize in infectious diseases and eventually work on developing vaccines.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never took my class rank for granted, so having my hard work recognized was so satisfying,\u201d says Boyer of being selected as valedictorian.<\/p>\n

Challenging herself by taking seven AP courses in high school along the way, she discovered a fascination for anything science-related. \u201cThere\u2019s something so rewarding about investigation and discovery, which definitely keeps the subject from becoming boring,\u201d Boyer says.<\/p>\n

As a sophomore, Boyer channeled her interest in science into what became a three-year biomechanical research study into the risks of injury to teenage female recreational runners. Months of collecting data, performing calculations, and analysis eventually paid off. Placing third at the Connecticut Science and Engineering Fair, Boyer\u2019s study earned her a trip in May to the nation\u2019s most prestigious pre-college science competition, INTEL. And, she was the only high school student accepted to attend the the Northeast Bioengineering Conference in Boston.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were shocked that I even applied to present,\u201d Boyer recalls of the college-level competition. \u201cI\u2019m now published in their conference proceedings. The whole experience was worth it, and I’m even more eager to do research at UConn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robbins participated in varsity swimming, indoor track, and outdoor track throughout high school, and was named the CIAC Scholar Athlete and JI Fall Scholar Athlete in her senior year.<\/p>\n

Also a member of her school\u2019s Quiz Bowl Team, president of the Manchester High School National Honor Society chapter, first chair clarinet in the school band, and part-time employee at Munson\u2019s Chocolates, she challenged herself academically in math, science, and history.<\/p>\n

Balancing extracurricular and academic activities, \u201cI learned how to be highly organized,\u201d she says. \u201cIt required a lot of time management. You learn to be patient.\u201d When she was named salutatorian, Robbins recalls her excitement to see that it all paid off.<\/p>\n

When it came to decide which college to attend, say Boyer and Robbins, the decision came down to the caliber of preparation that UConn could provide for their career aspirations.<\/p>\n

\u201cPathobiology is not exactly a field that a lot of schools have either as a major or even offer courses in,\u201d Robbins notes. “I was really excited that UConn has an entire department<\/a> dedicated to the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Says Boyer, \u201cI couldn’t imagine myself anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

A glimpse of the paths that three other top high-school graduates took to UConn:<\/p>\n

New Jersey\u2019s Butler High School Class of 2014 salutatorian, Bryan Glock, has plans to pursue a biological sciences degree at UConn. While he’s always had a gift for academics, Glock said that graduating at the top of his class was never necessarily his goal: “My goals have always been just to work hard in order to better prepare myself for college and the future.” A lifelong resident of Butler, Glock\u2019s favorite subjects are chemistry and biology.<\/p>\n

Amisha Dave, the Newtown High School Class of 2014 salutatorian, participated in her school\u2019s Student Government, National Honor Society, served as captain of the school\u2019s math team, and ran for the school\u2019s track team her freshman and sophomore years. Her favorite subjects are math and science. Amisha will be starting studies in an eight-year medical program.<\/p>\n

William Corey Moore, the New Haven Notre Dame High School Class of 2014 salutatorian, was selected as a Day of Pride and Honors Scholar, and has a four-year scholarship to attend UConn. The Senior Class Vice-President, member of the National Honor Society, Spanish Club, and a Senior Peer Counselor in the Minority Student Union, Moore was also on the basketball team and involved with the New Haven NAACP Youth Group. He was also guest speaker at New Haven Police Department functions, including the swearing in of the city\u2019s newest police officers in December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘I couldn’t imagine myself anywhere else,’ says Megan Boyer, one of more than 500 incoming valedictorians and salutatorians this year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":96006,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2226,156,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[46],"class_list":["post-95863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clas","category-profile","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-19 02:31:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95863"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96161,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95863\/revisions\/96161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/96006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95863"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=95863"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=95863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}