‘She just always wanted to learn’

East Meadow High School Valedictorian Addison Baroukh always seemed to find the hardest things in school the easiest and the easiest things more difficult..

“If it was ever a complicated lesson in math, I would always understand that,” Baroukh, said. “If it was something very simple, I’d be like, ‘It can’t be that simple, right?’”

Baroukh, who recently turned 18, made her way through the East Meadow School District, attending Barnum Woods Elementary School and Woodland Middle School. Now she’s finishing her high school career with a weighted average of 110.12.

“I always thought it was a possibility, and that I was up there,” Baroukh said of being the valedictorian. “But, there’s so many smart kids in our grade that I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Then I was told, and I was like, ‘Oh, so it is me.’”

She will make her way to upstate Ithaca this fall to attend Cornell University, where she plans to study industrial labor relations, which focuses on the study of people and workplace policies. She said the industrial relations school at Cornell combines many of her interests.

“I really like government and history,” she said. “I like hearing about the past, and all of the crazy things that I wasn’t even alive for. It’s kind of interesting to learn about because I’m experiencing stuff now, but there’s so many things that I haven’t.”

Alisa Baroukh, Addison’s mom, said that her daughter was always “intellectually curious.”

“She always had to know about everything and she used to ask whoever was with her to teach her something,” Alisa said. “She just always wanted to learn. She’s always been so impressive like that.”

In high school, Addison is a part of National Honor Society, Science Honor Society and Math Honor Society. She is on the board of the Gender Equality Movement club, and a member of the horticulture club. She’s also an active member of the Nassau County Peer Diversion Youth Court — a program that uses high school students as attorneys and judges for a juvenile who has committed a nonviolent crime. 

Alisa said she wasn’t surprised with the path her daughter chose.

“Addison has always been very logical,” Alisa said.“Everything that she does is driven by logic, so if you asked her when she was younger what she wanted to be when she grew up, she would tell you, ‘I’m too young to tell you that.’”

She recalled a time in eighth grade where she received a text from Addison saying that she had to give a speech at graduation, and Addison’s response left Alisa shocked.

“I asked her why, and it was so typical of Addison, so very nonchalant, she said, ‘oh, they said because I have the highest average so I have to give a speech at graduation,’” Alisa said. “I was so stunned I had to pull my car over.”

For Addison, having good teachers was the key to her educational success. She shared stories about how her Advanced Placement U.S. history teacher Jonathan Harris would always show pictures of him and his sons from various historical sites he visited, and how his room was decorated with Elvis memorabilia. She also reminisced about how her eighth grade social studies teacher, Rebecca Boettcher, would play trivia and joke around with her class.

“If you had a good teacher, then every moment you kind of enjoyed,” Addison said. “I feel like I’ve had really great teachers who have all been really nice and helpful, and you could tell really enjoyed helping kids and teaching them — it made learning a lot more fun.”

Addison said she’s excited to see what college is all about, but she’s also a little nervous. And, for any student that’s working their way through the school system, she advises them to not push themselves too hard.

“Don’t take things or the environment around you for granted,” she said. “If you have a teacher or a class that you love, make sure you enjoy it as much as you can because those are memories you’re going to look back on.”