Schools
Lakewood High School Valedictorian Off to the Races
With college and pre-med ambitions just around the corner, Stephanie Saed looks back at how she capitalized on all the opportunities that LHS had to offer.
Stephanie Saed, the 2011 valedictorian, is a scholastic thoroughbred, and when counting down her accomplishments, awards and scholarships, it’s not hard to see why she was the first to cross the finish line.
Apart from her 4.0+ GPA, Saed recently received the Mary Louise Beech Scholarship, the Buckeye Family Scholarship, the Cleveland Technical Societies Council Scholarship, the Rotary Scholarship, the PTA scholarship and the Scholarship for Excellence.
And that’s just scratching the surface.
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Over the last two years, she’s received the Presidential Service Award, the Cleveland Technical Societies Council Honor, the AP Scholar Award, the Lakewood Hospital Volunteer Service Award, the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Work Ethic Award 2011 and the Cleveland Phi Beta Kappa Award.
“I am most proud of receiving the Presidential Service Award,” she said. “I really enjoy volunteering and I do it in a variety of ways. I regularly volunteer at Lakewood Hospital, do community activities through H2O and my church youth group, tutor students in piano and tutor academics. It’s cool to receive national recognition for volunteering, and I hope it encourages others to donate their time as well.”
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As for the future, Saed isn’t wasting any time.
She was already admitted into the exclusive University of Akron NEOUCOM accelerated medical program with a natural science, pre-med major, and is eying the possibility of becoming a pediatrician in the years ahead. Classes start this summer, and Saed hopes that she can capitalize on the same type of opportunities that she found at LHS.
During her four years at the high school, she took 10 AP classes, which helped to optimize her transcripts, and was guided by such teachers as Karen Alten who fueled her passion and interest for the sciences.
Now that it’s all over, Saed had a few words of encouragement and advice as she sprints ahead and begins anew down in Akron.
“My piece of advice is to really put forth all the effort you can. It can do no harm and most of the time, it really pays off,” she said.
