June 11 marks the end of the seniors’ journey through high school. The 2019 class will be at the Stuart C. Siegel Center accepting their diplomas, awards, and commemorating their final day as Wildcats.

  Grant Matteo ranked number one in his class and will be delivering his commencement speech on graduation day.

  Matteo plans on studying electro-mechanical and biomedical engineering at  the University of Virginia. The university is located in Charlottesville which is a city he likes.

  Throughout these four years, Matteo has studied hard through the multitude of AP courses he has taken,

  “I did take a lot of classes that were harder [like] AP Chemistry, which was interesting,  and AP European History. Dr. Palen’s classes [were my favorite]. I had him for three years straight in Calculus, Pre-Calculus, and Discrete. I think he has been here for at least eight years. He has more passion for what he does than I think any other teacher I have met before in my life. On top of that, for most of my life, I’ve not been to interested in Spanish but Senior Helwig in AP Spanish managed to completely turn that around by being himelf ,” Matteo said.

  These four years have been enjoyable for Matteo, and he recommends upcoming classes to do the same.

  “Enjoy your time here, because you get four years here, and it’s going to be sad when you leave. Maybe you will go off and do something even better, but these will still be some of the best four years of your life so and enjoy it,” Matteo said

  Grant Matteo had great times exploring different extracurriculars such as Boy Scouts. As a student of the CIT program, he encourages  joining different clubs such as the Blue Cheese Robotics team, math team, and the programming team.

  “The programming team is mega lit (hits massive dab) and the math team lets you do all sorts of competitions being a school-wide thing. Neither of them take that much time out of your schedule,” Matteo said.

  All four years of high school can still leave  people with regrets. Grant Matteo experienced some “what if” moments as he closes this chapter in his life.

  “I never really learned how to play the clarinet,” Matteo said.

  While Matteo has to say his goodbyes to the staff and students of the school, he says hello to the new changes about to unfold.