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Page 20 NEWFOUNDLAKELIFE.COM June 2023 Community
Taylor Mooney and Lillian Karkheck will Highlight Ceremonies for the NRHS Class of 2023 on June 10th
Newfound Regional High School’s Valedictorian Taylor Mooney and Salutatorian Lillian Karkheck may have different goals for their future, but during their years in high school, they have both seen success in aca- demics, athletics and commit- ments to their community.
Mooney is from Hebron, and during her four years at NRHS, she has excelled in numerous ways. She is Class Treasurer, a member of the Yearbook com- mittee, the math team, the Get- ting to Yes group, the Student Athletic Leadership Team, the National Honor Society, and the Rho Kappa National Social Studies Honor Society. She was also selected to attend the elite St. Paul’s School in Concord last summer, where, with an interest in finance, she participated in a Data-Driven program that ex- posed her to many new things within the field of finance.
Besides her many academic accolades, Mooney is also ath- letic, playing on the girls’ varsity soccer team and as a member of track and field. She and her family were also instrumental in developing the first NRHS gym- nastics team. As a one-person team in her freshman year, and edged up to two participants in her sophomore year, she enjoyed the experience of competing at the high school level, but ul- timately her ten years of expe- rience in gymnastics led her to track and field.
“I just liked ‘sending’ myself in gymnastics, and that led me to become a pole vaulter,” Mooney said. “It’s an all-body thing, and I enjoyed that challenge.” Then, at a track and field event in May, she met that challenge head-on by setting a new school record of 9’1”, an inch over the previous girls’ pole vault record.
As part of her Senior Proj- ect this year, Mooney analyzed data from a statewide Youth Be- havior survey where she found there were a lot of current issues amongst people her age.
“It could be because of COVID. Surveys taken before
By donna rhodes
Newfound Regional School Dis- trict. “Our program (in Middle School) was able to start it all off, and I felt I was a part of some- thing bigger,” she said.
By helping develop the girls’ soccer team through the middle and then high school, Karkheck felt she could help provide an opportunity for younger kids to participate in the sport as well.
“A few good coaches made me want to play soccer. It was out of my comfort zone at first, but I began to feel brave to be out there, and now I want to in- fluence others to do the same,” she said.
Since she entered high school, she has become a coach for the Tapply-Thompson Community Center’s girls’ soccer program in hopes of encouraging other young girls to “step outside the box” and be involved as well.
In the fall, Karkheck will be off to St. Anselm’s College in Salem, N.H., where she will be majoring in Pre-Med with the goal of one day becoming a pediatrician.
“I’ve always wanted to help people, and in my upper years in school, I realized I just love kids, and this is what I want to do in the future- help kids,” Karkheck said. “I mentor a ‘little kid’ at Bristol Elementary every week who’s a little ball of fire, and I love it! I think work should be something you love, not just what you do every day, and I love chil- dren.”
Principal Hoiriis praised her, saying, “I would call Lillian the Silent Servant. She does so much community service, but not just at the school. She’s always pitch- ing in to help, and that’s a trait I really appreciate about her!”
With no doubt that these young women will be successful in the future, he went on to say, “I couldn’t be more proud of these two, not only for their accom- plishments but for their impact on the entire school. We’ve all benefitted from them.”
Graduation Day for these two outstanding young ladies and their worthy peers from the Class of 2023 will take place at New- found Regional High School at 9 a.m. on June 10th.
Taylor Mooney and Lillian Karkheck are the Valedictorian and Salutatorian for the Class of 2023 at Newfound Regional High, with graduation ceremonies scheduled for June 10th at 9 a.m. on the high school campus. Photo Donna Rhodes
and after COVID showed sub- stance use decreased, but then depression went up,” she said.
Dating violence has become another issue since the pan- demic, so for her project, she created posters and informed her classmates of hotline num- bers for those experiencing such violence and those who observed it or felt friends were at risk of being harmed.
In her after-school hours, Mooney is a mentor at Belmont Elementary School, where she has brought crocheted animals for the students with whom she works. It’s time she enjoys with youngsters who need support, along with someone they can count on to spend one-on-one time with them, too.
After graduation from NRHS,
Mooney will be off to the Florida Institute of Technology, where she will enter their five-year pro- gram for Global Management and Finance and hopes to finish with a Masters’Degree in Finan- cial Forensics. She said she will spend her free time doing com- munity service through beach cleanup in Florida, where she has enjoyed vacationing over the years.
“I plan on coming back to live in New Hampshire after I gradu- ate, though,” she said.
Principal Paul Hoiriis is proud of Mooney’s accomplishments and said, “I have to say that Tay- lor has really developed great re- lationships with the adults in the building and earned the respect of all of her teachers.”
Lillian Karckheck of Bridge-
water is also worthy of the role of Salutatorian for the Class of 2023.
She was a member of the NRHS Varsity Math Team, the Yearbook Committee and was in- ducted into the National Honor Society while, like Mooney, she was involved in athletics at the same time.
Throughout her four years at NRHS, Karkheck was Captain of the Girls’ Varsity Soccer team while also playing a role in the Ski Team along with Track and Field in the spring. Soccer was her passion, though, and over the years, that helped her decide her future goal.
She began playing soccer in sixth grade as one of the stu- dents who helped to eventually bring a girl’s soccer team to the