Each month, four regional high schools honor a local student who has shown exceptional academic achievement, exemplifies good citizenship and participates in community service. Students are chosen from Old Rochester Regional High School, Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School, Wareham High School, and Upper Cape Regional Vocational Technical High School. Their teachers, who then vote for the winning candidate, submit student nominations. According to Exalted Ruler Susan Gifford of Elks Lodge of Wareham No. 1548, all of the students of the month will be recognized in May at a banquet sponsored by the Lodge. “During the banquet, we call up each student and present them with a savings bond to help fund their future education,” Gifford said.
For the month of February, Old Rochester Regional senior Molly Magee, from Mattapoisett, received the honor. Nominated by physical education teacher, Nancy Cowen, she noted Magee’s dedication to community service in the athletic department as the hallmark reason for her nomination.
“Where Molly really stands out is where she helps in the gym,” Cowen said.
Every week, she arrives to school early to assist Cowen with preparing for the physical education classes. For three semesters, Magee has been helping Cowen supervise weight room activities, refereeing games, and keeping class attendance.
“She is seeing the other side of what goes on, from the teaching aspect to the discipline issues we sometimes come across to the paperwork we have to take care of,” Cowen said.
Magee, who is also an A-student in physical education, played basketball for three years and has been on the varsity softball team all four years of high school. Last year, she was nominated for the girls’ all-start softball team. She not only challenges herself as an athlete, but in the classroom as well. Magee is enrolled in AP Statistics, Pre-Calculus, physics, and Honors 5 Latin. She is also a member of the National Honor Society.
For all of these credentials, she remains a quiet, humble, and patient student. While she has received many messages of congratulations from her teachers, she is realistic about how they see her.
“It’s nice because you’re competing against other students, but I know my teachers will probably expect a lot more from me now,” Magee said.
Maintaining high academic performance and leadership only 44 days from her last day as an ORRHS student may be easier said than done. The inevitable senioritis bug has bitten many of her peers, who are eager to begin their post-high school lives, whether their future holds college, military, or a job. Magee seems unaffected by it so far, but does not predict that will last much longer, as spring quickly approaches.
“I think by April vacation, I will be waiting for that last day to come,” she said. She is planning on attending the University of Rhode Island in the autumn to pursue a bio-medical degree.
It will be a bittersweet feeling when she walks out the door of ORRHS for the last time. Students like her, who offer so much of their time and energy helping others, are not a dime a dozen. Cowen will have to adjust to life without Molly come September.
“I will miss her next year,” she said. “It was nice to have someone willing to come help all the time.”
By Eric Tripoli