Zoe Eggleston named Salutatorian

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Zoe Eggleston was selected as Salutatorian of the 2021 class of Whitehall High School, and she is excited to start the next chapter after graduation. When reflecting on her high school years, she is thankful for all that she has been taught.

“Obviously I learned a lot in high school academically, but I would say also just the friends I got to make in high school and the experiences I got to have helped me grow as a person more than anything and there’s experiences I will never forget in my life and I’m really grateful for that,” she said.

Another thing Eggleston mentioned was the pace of life when in high school and how it passed by quicker than she expected.

“I would say that high school for me went by so, so fast and I’m sure everyone thinks that but honestly I feel like yesterday I started my freshman year,” she said.

Eggleston is looking to continue her education at West Point and credits high school for her growth as a person.

“I would say high school helped me figure out what I wanted in my future,” she said. “It kind of helped me see what kind of people I wanted to be around when I was older and the kind of place, I wanted to go that I knew I’d be happy at.”

She may be graduating with the class of 2021 at Whitehall, but Eggleston for the past two years has been attending school in Queensbury and enrolled in their International Baccalaureate Program. This is where Eggleston realized her love for Biology, and she hopes to continue studying it in the years to come.

“It was offered to us so that’s why I spent most of my time academically wise there the last two years,” she said.

The transition between high school and college will be a fast one for Eggleston. With graduation happening on June 25, she will only have three days before departing to West Point.

“The first year is tough I’ve heard,” she said. “I actually graduate on June 25 and leave on June 28. I’ll spend my summer there in boot camp, it’s called East Barracks. Then I’ll start right in September after that in school. It’ll be a tough year, but I think I can handle it and then I’ll be back for three weeks in the summer I believe and then two breaks, one in the spring and one in the winter,” she said.

As for her position as Salutatorian, Eggleston wasn’t quite sure how she felt in the beginning. Knowing the role was large and it’s for students who excelled, she was apprehensive towards the position.

“I wasn’t really sure though this year where I was ranked or anything because my class has been pretty competitive like the top three or four of my class are pretty competitive, so that was really awesome to hear,” she said.

Eggleston has kept her nose to her books for the past four years and feels as though it’s paying off with being Salutatorian.

“I’ve worked really hard throughout my high school career, especially these last two years at Queensbury. The grades aren’t weighted so I didn’t really know what to expect with the ranking wise going in,” she said.

“I’m definitely very proud to say that I’m the Salutatorian of the class of 2021.”