By:Elizabeth Sagarin
With a sizable number of Island Park students attending West Hempstead High School, it's not exactly a phenomenon to have both the valedictorian and salutatorian be from Island Park this year.
It is pretty phenomenal, however, that Andrew Friedenthal, the valedictorian, and Lauren Dworkis, the salutatorian, present two rather different images of a student at the top of a class.
When this reporter first met Friedenthal, he was thumbing through the card catalogue of the Island Park library. It was easy to pick him out. He appeared every bit the kind of kid with the highest grade-point average in school. A small-framed young man who wore glasses, khakis and a plaid shirt greeted me with a genuine smile and forthright attitude -- a characteristic seldom found in teenagers.
After sitting down to talk, it took only a minute to start feeling regret about not being more like him in high school. He said he loves high school. He has this uncanny appreciation for all its contradictions and inconsistencies. They are fodder for his writing. "I am perfectly happy to let a machine work as it does, but with people, I have to figure them out," he said.
It is through writing that Friedenthal deals with life's awkward machinations. He plays out what he sees in a story with characters based on those in his surroundings. Or he rants in the school newspaper about girls and other matters that can't be figured out with the quadratic equation.
Whether consciously or not, this is how he is able to stay away from a cynical view of the world despite having a heightened awareness of its lack of fairness. "With me and my friends, I know there is so much we talk about changing, but we're viewed as so young and naive that a lot of people don't listen to us," he said. But with a shrug of the shoulders, the frustration goes. "No matter how low you are, there is always something that can make it better," he said.
For Friedenthal, being able to craft a tale where justice is served and people get what they deserve helps him forget the times he's called a geek. "I'd rather be known as a writer," he said. That's why he has decided to attend Dartmouth College in the fall to major in English and minor in stage management. His dream is to become a famous author and travel the world meeting people so he can write stories somewhere in between J.D. Salinger and Stephen King. His motto, which he can't remember exactly because King said it, is: "The job of the writer is to tell us the truth about ourselves by making up lies about imaginary people."
Uncovering truth, either about himself or the world around him, is a task he is well equipped to undertake, according to Mary Skinner, the director of English K-12 in the West Hempstead district. "I have confidence that he'll become a writer," she said. "He has a lot of general knowledge. The more he finds, the more he is looking for."
It's the pursuit he loves. With a GPA a point shy of 100, a perfect score on the verbal portion of the SAT and a National Merit Scholarship for academics in the bag, Friedenthal said there are many things he still has to learn. "I don't know much, and I think most people don't," he said.
Therein lies the folly of life, in which Friedenthal revels because it offers a laugh. "People need to be able to laugh at themselves ... the humor of their own situation," he said.
With that in mind, he is able to paint a positive picture of humanity. He credits his parents, Martin and Phyllis, who are both teachers, for instilling in him the values that make him a compassionate writer. However, he admitted, "I don't think I think like my parents."
That's why his parents had some concerns when he came to them with his career plans. In the end, he said, they gave their full support.
Their disappointment probably stems from their son's history. For years he's been able to figure out the answers to questions with relative ease. Now, he is looking forward, with zeal, to tackling problems that have no definitive answers. "If I ever figured it out," he said, "I wouldn't have anything to do anymore."
SH: Lauren Dworkis
Lauren Dworkis is so together, you wish you were more like her, now. It takes only a few minutes before she's being asked what her secret is.
Here is a reporter, eight years her senior, asking what she does to keep herself on track. Having arrived late and called her by the wrong name when meeting her on a sunny Saturday afternoon at the end of April, the reporter listens.
She says that learning to manage one's time is what it takes. It must, considering all that she does. She has the second-highest grade-point average, which unweighted is 97.7, in this year's graduating class of West Hempstead High, and if not for the four classes she took at Nassau Community College in the past two semesters, she might have the first. But classes she could have taken in high school that would put weight on her average didn't factor into her master plan, which is to be a pediatrician.
Such courses will help at Cornell University in September, she said, and in her pursuit to be a versatile individual.
There are few areas of study and activities she doesn't explore, and there aren't many she isn't good at. She acts, sings, swims, runs and performs academically at levels of prestigious rank. Her drive, she said, stems from her need to be as productive as possible. "I hate sleeping late. If I sleep late, I might be missing something," she said.
At home, William Esner, the director of science K-12, isn't allowed to speak of Dworkis anymore because he sung her praises so loudly that his two daughters began to get upset. He didn't hold back when interviewed.
With amazement in his voice, he told how she came into the science department
