Mattituck Cutchogue School District

Meet Mattituck High School’s Valedictorian and Salutatorian

Next in our series is Mattituck’s top students. Read more about Courtney Murphy and Christian Van Cleef, the Class of 2015’s Valedictorian and Salutatorian, below. 

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COURTNEY MURPHY

VALEDICTORIAN

GPA: 101.2450 (weighted), 99.0980 (unweighted)

College plans: Villanova University

Major: business

Team player: Courtney played varsity soccer, varsity basketball, travel soccer and summer league soccer and basketball. She earned several honors including All League Soccer, Academic All County Soccer, All League Basketball and Academic All County Basketball. She also won several sports awards, including For the Love of the Game Booster Club Award, New York State Public High School Athletic Association Scholar Athlete Award and Suffolk Zone Award.

All business: Courtney earned third- and fifth-place awards in the Distributive Education Club of America’s regional competition. She was named an Advanced Placement Scholar With Distinction and Student of the Month for history and foreign language. She won a New York State Scholarship for Academic Excellence first-place award and is a Rube Goldberg contest winner. She also landed on the High Honor Roll every quarter since seventh grade.

Giving back: Courtney participated in several community groups, including serving as president of the Leo Club, and she volunteered for Maureen’s Haven, the Mattituck Lions Club Strawberry Festival, Relay for Life and Letters to Soldiers. She was also a tutor for Spanish, algebra and trigonometry.

Parting words: “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my high school career and my experiences at Mattituck have surely helped shape me as a person. So many great memories have been created here and I’m thankful for having grown up in such a wonderful community.”

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DANIEL PARKS

SALUTATORIAN

GPA: 99.09 (weighted), 97.69 (unweighted)

College plans: Brandeis University

Major: international relations/philosophy

Helping hands: Daniel volunteered for San Simeon by the Sound and the China Conservation and Research Center. He also helped with a fundraising effort at North Fork Reform Synagogue in Cutchogue.

Team player: As a varsity soccer player, Daniel earned several honors, including this year’s state championships and the Scholar Athlete Award. He also played with Mattituck Alliance and the Brookhaven Summer Soccer League.

A little bit of everything: Daniel was president of the World Language Club and participated in several groups: the Leo Club, student council, executive student council, Math League, National Honor Society and DECA.

Internships: During high school, Daniel held internships at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, Good News Planet and Copal Partners-London (Copal Amba).

Parting words: “I’m glad I at least had the foresight to learn out of passion rather than out of necessity, but whether that’ll be valuable to me or not depends on what’s yet to come. I’ve learned to be less rigid as a person and to take greater and more frequent risks. I believe that you learn more from what you do poorly in high school than what you do well. I hope that I learn no lesson in vain.”