Meet Massapequa Valedictorian Alexa Savino

When you have a 4.987 weighted grade point average on a 4.75 scale,  you know you've got a serious serious academic record.

For Alexa Savino it was enough to make her the Massapequa High School's valedictorian for 2011.

"I was really overwhelmed. I didn't expect it at all," she said of receiving the honor.  "My school is really filled with a lot of top competitors. Everyone is very aggressive in a positive way. Everybody cares about everything they do."

Savino did more than most. She's a violin player who's an assistant teacher at the Massapequa's summer program and was a member of Massapequa's Symphony and Chamber Orchestra.  She's won many poetry contests and  takes part in Equestrian competitions. She was also president of the school's National Honor Society. 

Savino certainly has many varied interests, and she is carrying that philosophy to Adelphi Honors College in the fall.

"I'm probably going to do a double major in English and Political Science," she says.

"It serves as a good step to law school."

Law school is the long term goal for Savino. It would be the culmination of a stellar academic record.

"My mom started me  reading when I was a little bit younger, just to see how I'd like it," she said. "I absolutely loved it and everything I did , my teachers noticed that I did it with a lot of energy."

She credits John Schmitt an advance placement English instructor ad being, "absolutely my favorite teacher."

But it was  a moot court exercise in an introduction to law class that made Savino choose her current career path.

"As soon as I was up on the stand in a mock trial situation, I became a different person," she said.  "I became a completely different person. I was much bolder, I wanted to be prepared, I wanted to defend someone else."

She's certainly aiming high with her long-term goal.

"Constitutional law is definitely my interest," she said. "When my government teacher introduced us to the job of a Supreme Court clerk, I was extremely interested."

Savino acknowledges that being a clerk for one of the justices on the highest court in the land is a difficult undertaking, but given her work ethic, don't bet against her.