Top Scholars Recognized At Ellington High School

ELLINGTON, CT — Ellington High School has announced that Annika Stimac has been named valedictorian and Lakshita Ganesh Kumar is salutatorian of the Class of 2023.

Stimac has been the first and only high school student to intern for the Global Accountability Network as a writer, researcher and analyst. The Global Accountability Network works to secure justice for victims of atrocity crimes across the globe through the rule of law. She published a poetry book that she not only wrote but also illustrated, titled Still Growing, under the pseudonym Wren. Some of her other poetry has been published in various outlets.

She has been a varsity rower/coxswain for Riverfront Recapture Inc. in Hartford. She is the vice president of the National Honor Society, president of the National Latin Honor Society, president of the National Art Honor Society, captain of the Mock Trial Team, and a core member of the Ellington Youth Services Alliance. She has participated in Unified Basketball and Knight Writers throughout her high school years.

Stimac was co-founder and co-president of the Ellington Community Theatre Youth Board. She also spearheaded an initiative to grant varsity letters to competing members of academic teams at Ellington High School; the first letters were awarded this spring.

She has placed all four years on the National Latin Test, earning Cum Laude on Latin 1, Magna Cum Laude on Latin 2, Maxima Cum Laude on Latin 3 and Cum Laude on AP Latin. She has also received her seal of biliteracy in Latin, is an AP Scholar with Distinction and has received numerous awards from Ellington High School for outstanding achievement in many of her classes throughout the years.

Stimac will attend Colgate University as an Alumni Memorial Scholar, majoring in international relations and economics.

Lakshita, daughter of B. Ganesh Kumar and V. Mohineeswari, has served as a member of the Ellington Knight Writers, yearbook staff, Tri-M, and has led the French Club and Honor Society as their vice president for two years. She is a dedicated musician who has participated in the Ellington High School marching band for all four years, and has served as the band’s drum major during her senior year. She was accepted into the Connecticut Eastern Region Music Festival, has produced many songs that are available on major platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music, and has composed a complete piece for the Ellington Middle School concert band, which was performed during their 2023 spring concert.

She is an accomplished student who has taken a rigorous course load at Ellington with 14 AP and ECE credits, 15 Honors credits, and six college credits earned at Manchester Community College. She also shares her knowledge and learning as a tutor at Kumon, where she works with students in grades K-12. During her free time, she takes various courses online and has earned a Professional Certificate in Computer Science for Artificial Intelligence from Harvard.

Lakshita will be continuing her education in computer science and engineering at the University of Connecticut in the Honors Program with a Full Tuition Scholarship. She also plans to study on the pre-med track as she aspires to attend medical school for surgery.

Graduation is scheduled for June 9.