Meet Laconia High School's Top 10

LACONIA — In just a few months, today's Laconia High School seniors will set sail for the next chapter of their futures. Some intend to pursue education in New Hampshire, while others want to go somewhere new and experience another part of the country. The Daily Sun sat down with the top ten graduating seniors to see what they enjoyed most about their experience, and where they're going next.

Katie Westcott hopes to pursue a career in nursing.

“I'm going into college, majoring in nursing to become a registered nurse,” Westcott said. The future nurse touted her experience as treasurer of the Key Club, Secretary of the Class, Secretary of the National Honor Society, as well as her placement on the varsity soccer and ski team as essential to her high school experience. Westcott was also captain of the lacrosse team.

To help prepare for her nursing career, Westcott is also doing a medical assistant internship at Belmont Primary Care.

Like many of her top ten peers, Westcott expressed happiness with the school's Huot Technical Center.

“I'm in allied health, so it helped prepare me for my future and get some hands-on experience,” Westcott said.

The Huot classes were some of the best parts of Ryan Poliquin's education. “Taking engineering, just gaining real world experience that will apply directly to college and the real world,” said Poliquin, who plans to study mechanical engineering and minor in electrical engineering. His engineering teacher, Ken Martin, guided him to his current career path. Poliquin also became a student ambassador for the technical center.

“I had Mr. Martin for all four years of high school,” Poliquin recalled. “He really helped me to decide what I wanted to do.” Poliquin's top three schools are University of Massachusetts Amherst, University of Vermont and the University of Connecticut.

In addition to his dogged pursuit of engineering, Poliquin played soccer and was an active member of the Boy Scouts. He also landed an internship at EPTAM Precision Plastics and volunteered with Got Lunch Laconia.

Madison Brooks is another STEM senior. “I plan to go to a four year college on the pre-med track,” Brooks said. “Then I plan to go to medical school after that and become a doctor.”

Brooks, who is hoping to work in general surgery, was captain of the soccer team, played lacrosse, and spent time with student council, key club and drama club.

“I liked the social side of high school the best, which I never really expected,” Brooks said. “I learned from COVID that we can get our education no matter what, but actually being in high school you work with people and learn how to form relationships.”

Some of the most important relationships were those held by students and their teachers.

“Mr. (Andrew) Paranto is a big one in my path, he really helped me to love Spanish as a language and that's what guided me towards my career choice,” said Elizabeth Muller, who will pursue a degree in international relations at an out-of-state university. “My goal would be to work for the United Nations, hopefully under their climate change department,” Miller said. “I hope to have some minor or just specific career more in environmental sustainability to help combat climate change.”

Muller isn't the only student looking to help change the world with her continuing education.

“After I graduate, I plan on attending a four-year university in the Boston area,” said Hannah Lowell. “I will be majoring in political science and minoring in women and gender studies.”

When asked what she wanted to pursue as a career after college, Lowell said she wasn't really sure yet. “I definitely want to be in the political realm and just making a difference,” Lowell said, stating that her experiences in the Girl Scouts, student council, and her role as editor for the school yearbook helped her leadership schools.

In addition to academics and extracurricular activities, Lowell focused on personal growth throughout her high school career.

“One huge thing I got out of high school was finding out who I am and embracing it.” Lowell said. “I realized all I needed to do to be my true self was to let go of everyone else's opinions and live freely.”

Lowell attributes part of her newfound confidence to Lindsay Hurley, her English teacher and yearbook advisor.

“She was a big inspiration to me, all four years of high school. She was an amazing, understanding teacher. She doesn't really care about other people's opinions and she just 'does her,' she's just free with it. That's probably where I got my 'be free with it' vibe.”

Lowell recommends that others take this lesson to heart.

“I know it's hard with other people's opinions at that age, but just be yourself. Don't care about what other people think, because after high school, it's not going to matter.”

Anita Wentworth also wants to go beyond New Hampshire, but she hasn't picked a specific region yet.

“I think my plan is to go out of state just to get a whole new experience,” Wentworth said. “I want to study nutrition and food science with a dietetics drive.”

The 13 year-long Girl Scout member played soccer for all four years of her high school career. In addition to sports and clubs, Wentworth is also pursuing a special diploma distinction project.

“My project is I'm going to talk to the middle schoolers about the importance of health and wellness with exercise nutrition and mental health kind of stuff. I think it's important for them coming into high school to have that kind of background.”

Her advice to younger students? Wentworth said that “change is good sometimes. I know high school can sound really scary, but its important to take this time to find out who you are and find your interests, and that sometimes people grow apart and sometimes that's okay.”

“My brother will start in two years,” said senior James Stafford, “if I were talking to him, I'd tell him to try your hardest the whole time obviously, and sometimes it will seem like droll and feel like you don't want to do all that work, but in the end when you get to my point, there's not much more you can do, so it will help to have done that before, so when you get to this point you'll have more opportunities out of high school.”

Stafford's high school career included baseball, soccer and alpine ski racing. Stafford hopes to enter the finance sector after college.

“My uncle was a broker and he liked it,” Stafford said after expressing interest in majoring in economics or finance, “but I think I more want to go down portfolio management, maybe investment banking, but probably working for a hedge or mutual fund.”

Stafford said his math teacher was very helpful during his academic career.

“I had a lot of good teachers but the one that helped me get to where I am today the most would be Miss (Lisa) Hinds,” Stafford said. “She helped me a lot with math which fuels obviously what I want to go into.”

“Next year I'm going to Southern New Hampshire University,” said Evan Rollins, who will also study accounting and finance, as well as play for the school's golf team. For Rollins, sports moments were among the best parts of high school. Rollins played lacrosse, golf, hockey. Outside of sports, Rollins was involved with Interact Club and National Honors Society.

“The best was just getting involved with all the events that we do in sports, getting to know a bunch of people and close relationships,” Rollins said. “Some of my favorite memories would be just with sports stuff, like team bus rides, going out to eat with a team.”

“I did a lot of sports in high school,” said Sullivan Mousseau. “I did cross country and soccer in the fall and I did basketball in the winter and I do track and field and tennis in the spring.”

Although he participated in a wide variety of sports, Mousseau's true loves appear to be cooking and music.

“I plan to go to Johnson and Wales University in Providence for culinary arts and management training so I can open a restaurant at some point,” Mousseau said. A small, exclusive piano bar, to be specific.

“I like the idea of a small place, but people want to get in but its always booked. I want to have that kind of going.” Mousseau said. “I also really like music and playing piano so I want to have that kind of element worked into the restaurant, too. In terms of food I'd like to have a menu that's always changing. Have coworkers and chefs bring in ideas.”

If Mousseau had to pick a favorite teacher, he said it would be Krin Monterose, the music teacher, calling her his most “impactful” teacher.

“I'm taking her to the top 10 dinner too,” Mousseau said.

“Miss Monterose she helped me to improve vocally and gain a lot of confidence,” said Bryce Baird, a musical theater loving aspiring biomedical chemist, who will star as "Belle" in this year's production of Beauty and the Beast.

“The teacher that helped me the most academically was Ms. (Ivy) Leavitt-Carlson,” Baird said. “She taught the Huot bio-med program, she brought me into the world of medicine and bio and I absolutely fell in love with the lab.”

Baird doesn't know which school she will be attending yet, but she knows what she wants to pursue.

“I'm going to be doing either a medical lab science degree or a biomedical science degree,” Baird said. “I want to eventually end up working in the field of clinical trials. I want to work on mental health medication specifically because I think there's a strong stigma around it and I also want to fix that.”

Baird also advises incoming students to open up and jump feet first into the community at Laconia High. “I'd say get involved,” Baird said. “A lot of people miss out on the opportunity to become part of the community here, but just go for it. It takes a lot of courage and it might seem hard in the moment but it really really pays off and that's something Laconia does unparalleled.”