In addition to being the student who ranks second highest in the graduating class and delivers the salutatory, being Salutatorian of the Class of 2016 is being a remarkable and noteworthy individual who deserves the title in exchange for the all the hard work and dedication she has churned out. Senior Elena Slobodyanyuk is an individual who, more than anything, has worked hard throughout her four years of high school and deserves praise.

    Slobodyanyuk committed to UC Berkeley and has decided to major in biology. “I really like it [biology]. My first biology class was in ninth grade, and I had a really good teacher, and I really enjoyed it. I also took AP Biology my sophomore year, and since then, I’ve participated in activities that relate to biology, like Science Olympiad. I continued Science Olympiad throughout high school, and I really enjoyed it,” said Slobodyanyuk.

   Slobodyanyuk has earned a 4.71 GPA and has taken 12 AP classes over her four years of  high school. “I took one [AP class] during freshman year, three during sophomore year, four during junior year and four during my senior year,” said Slobodyanyuk. She gave this advice to those who plan on taking on AP classes in the future: “I would say to just take things day by day, and just try to do all the assignments you have in one day instead of thinking about everything, because that might be overwhelming. Every day, just listen in class and try to do all your homework, and if you really split it up like that, it’ll be a lot more manageable.

   Besides taking multiple AP classes, she also is involved in many extracurricular clubs. “I’m in the California Scholarship Federation [CSF] Club, and it’s basically a club where we do a lot of volunteering and outreach activities. I’m also in the Science Olympiad Club, which is a competition-based club where we compete in different science events. I’m also the president of the Red Cross Club this year, and we just try to volunteer as well,” said Slobodyanyuk. She was also involved in athletics as well. “I was a competitive rhythmic gymnast for most of my life, as well as being on the Varsity Tennis Team. Now, I just coach gymnastics,” she said.

   Even outside of class, Slobodyanyuk still continues to achieve so much on her own personal time. “[In gymnastics], I was in level nine out of the ten levels possible, and I competed in national and regional state competitions. Now, I continue by coaching, so I would consider that a pretty big achievement for me. I was also on Science Olympiad, and I was able to go to the state competition at CalTech this year, which was a lot of fun,” said Slobodyanyuk.

    No one goes through high school without a couple of rough patches here and there, and Slobodyanyuk is no exception. Yet, despite the bump in her life, she managed to pull through and achieve as much as she could. “At the end of my sophomore year, I decided to retire from competing in the sport [of gymnastics], and that was a really hard decision for me to make. Up until then, gymnastics had been my entire life, and almost every single day, I had practice, and it was everything I did. Having to stop doing that [gymnastics] really made me have an identity crisis, and I really had no idea what to do with all the free time I had. There was a long process during my junior year to come to terms with it. And then, I came back to coach, and from then on, I started getting a lot more involved in clubs at school, so I could continue to keep doing things I enjoy,” said Slobodyanyuk.

   Like so many others, Slobodyanyuk found her senior year to be her favorite year out of her high school career. “Senior year was my favorite because at that point, you basically know what you’re doing and you know what your interests are. You kind of become comfortable with the school and the teachers, and you feel like you have everything figured out,” said Slobodyanyuk.

   Her impact on both the school and her teachers is evident in the way that they talk about her. “She’s pretty awesome. She’s in my AP Chemistry class as well as Science Olympiad this year, and she’s done a remarkable job in both. She’s very quiet, but she helps people around her, and it’s really nice to watch her work with other students. She’s definitely down-to-earth, and she’s really terrific, but like I said, she’s really laid back. She’s not even remotely cocky, and she also has very nice writing. She does a really good job on her labs and keeping track of things,” said Teacher Maureen Quessenberry.   

   Her parents  had much to say about her as well. “Elena is an avid dog enthusiast. She always wanted to have her own dog, and when she finally got one, she spent endless hours teaching our dog Chara rules of obedience, along with how to behave with strangers and control her barking. She is always looking for ways to teach her new tricks, and takes all aspects of how this dog behaves in public  close to heart,” said her father, Mr. Volodimir Slobodyanyuk.

   “Elena is a hardworking, result-oriented person. She showed excellent results in school, and she has a deep interest in both STEM disciplines and humanities. I think this will serve her well in the future,” continued Volodimir Slobodyanyuk.

   “I am very proud of Elena for the care she takes for things to turn out as best as possible.  She is leading by the examples she sets, and not only in her studies, but in everything she does, from community service to her communication with everyone she knows. At her internship at the UCSD [University of California, San Diego] Biology lab, she was curious to find different research papers to understand the research in which she was involved.  She was asking the scientists many subject-matter questions to make sure she made an excellent opportunity out of this internship. She helped other interns to be successful at experiments, sharing all the knowledge she gained,” said Elena’s Mother, Mrs. Katya Slobodyanyuk.

   Elena Slobodyanyuk left this insightful parting advicee: “Find things that you really enjoy doing, and put as much energy into it as you can, instead of trying to do things for the merit or the recognition, because in the end, it is about you, and it is about what you like and what you enjoy doing. If you enjoy what you’re doing, then you’re most likely going to be successful at it.”