Valedictorian, Salutatorian Chart Different Paths to Newtown

Girish Agashe had his escape plan priced at $1,200. If he and his wife could just save up that amount, they would have enough money to buy one-way plane tickets to India, and escape what had started out looking like a mistake.

But instead, the Agashes stayed, moved to Newtown, and now their son, Amar, is headed to Yale University in the fall and will lead the Class of 2009 toward graduation today as valedictorian.

Amar Agashe's counterpart, salutatorian Zoe Desories and her family also took a chance when they decided to move across the country to Newtown – although for them it was the lure of antiques rather than an immigration story.

Agashe and his wife, who come from the Bombay, India region, first landed in Norwalk in 1984, and for a time, squeezed into his sister's home before finding an efficiency condominium they could afford.

Although Agashe was an experienced chemical engineer, he had difficulty finding a job in that field initially. His first job at Burger King turned into a disaster because although he spoke English – one of the prerequisites for getting the job, his supervisor told him – he knew nothing about the fast food menu.

"I was fired in the first five minutes," Agashe said, adding he and his wife came to question their decision to stay in the United States and started talking about going back home.

"I was waiting to get $1,200 for two tickets so we could go back," he said.

But then Agashe got a job on an electronics assembly line, and later at U.S. Surgical Corp. where he started out as a production technician but was moved to research after his employer realized his background in chemical engineering.

Taking on that job became a watershed moment for Agashe, who when he worked in India sometimes had to pay for lab supplies. But here, his employer was telling him he could spend money on research and gave him leeway to experiment.

"It was very exciting," he said.

Later while working for Boehringer Pharmaceuticals in Ridgefield, his co-workers suggested he and his family move to Newtown.

Amar Agashe was not even a toddler when the family settled into the Botsford section of town.

For the Yale University-bound 17-year-old, maintaining a good relationship with his parents has been an important part of his life, and in fact, what he wrote about in his college essay.

"For a lot of high schoolers, especially at this time in their lives, parents are more of a nuisance," Agashe said.

But his parents changed that by forcing him to go trail walking with them every weekend. Through that experience, he grew closer to them.

"When I went out on a trail, I couldn't do anything else, I had to talk," he said.

In his free time, Agashe volunteers at a local nursing home and hospital and has participated in the Quiz Bowl and Connecticut Innovation Academy.

"I'm a very nerdy person and I don't think that's a bad thing," he said.

The difference between a nerd and a geek is that the former is obsessed with knowledge and the later is obsessed with technology, Agashe said. At the same time, being a nerd or a geek doesn't preclude him from being personable, he said.

"I'm in between a nerd and a geek," Agashe said. "You can still like this kind of stuff and still be able to talk to people."

A few years after the Agashes settled into Newtown, the Destories family arrived in town. For Jack and Rosie Destories, natives of Santa Clara, CA and purveyors of antiques, the move was necessary if they were serious about opening their own auction house.

New York and New England are considered the epicenter of the antique world, and if they were going to build their business, the region was where they needed to be. After scoping out a few sites, they opened Fairfield Auctions in Newtown, and is now well-known in the area.

Zoe Destories was only in third-grade when they arrived in town. Now about to graduate from Newtown High School, she is headed to Harvard University. In addition to her studies, Destories hopes to participate in the university's theater program.

"I love theater, it's what I like doing in my free time," she said.

Destories also participates in choir, was named to the Connecticut all-state group for voice and hopes to continue singing when she gets to Harvard.

For as long as she can remember, Destories has enjoyed studying and getting good grades.

"I like doing well," she said. "That's the way I've always been."

Her father said his daughter is driven to succeed, and if he had one piece of advice to new parents, it would be to emphasize reading.

"She was an avid reader from very early on," Jack Destories said.

Both Amar Agashe and Zoe Destories are looking forward to college with a mixture of anticipation about the new opportunities ahead and sadness about leaving home.

In fact that was the subject of Destories' college essay when she wrote about the atmosphere along Main Street during Halloween.

"I was reflecting on having this sort of community and the importance of community and having to leave that behind," Destories said.