Q&A With LHS Senior Noha Ahmed

Noha Ahmed, a senior at Lexington High School, is one of two students speaking at tomorrow's graduation. Ahmed served as Class Council secretary and participated in classical Indian dance, peer mentoring, youth group, the debate team, the National Honor Society and Amnesty International. She plans to attend Tufts University in the fall and major in biology, with the hope of one day becoming a pediatrician.

Q. Out of your many activities, which were your favorite?

Ahmed: I think I was most involved with Class Council and student government in the school. I really like organizing things and working with people in the class, getting to know everyone. I feel like by now most people feel comfortable enough to come talk to me at anytime, and I feel like I'm more of a people person.

Q. Who were your favorite teachers, and why? What did they teach?

Ahmed: I really liked my chemistry teacher Ms. Compton, and my freshman year I liked my English teacher Ms. Gilligan, and then my English teachers the last four years have been fabulous: Mr. Strizak and Mr. Baker. And then the class advisor, Ms. Queenin, who is the one person that knows me the best and I love her to pieces. All of them really liked what they did – they were there because they loved to teach and loved seeing their student excel.

Q. What are your favorite memories from LHS?

Ahmed: My favorite memories would probably be hanging out with my friends. I really love volunteering so I got my friends into that too. One of the best moments I've had this year was winning the principal's award at the school. We also started a new tradition, the Mr. LHS competition. It was probably one of the most attended events we have had at Lexington High, a school with no spirit at all, so was nice to see the auditorium full for once.

Q. How did you change during your years at LHS?

Ahmed: I came into high school really driven and assuming I'd get into Harvard and worried about being the perfect person, and I realized it's more important to do what you love. I realized some things are more important to me than others – I would rather work on LHS than study for physics, it just made me happier as a person, and I still went to my top choice school so I'm happy where I am now.

Q. What message do you hope to send on Sunday through your speech?

Ahmed: If you have a future in mind or yourself you have to work for it yourself, don't worry about what others think of you. If you love art go for it even if you're afraid you won't be successful – even if it's not financially promising compared to something specific like becoming a brain surgeon. I think what inspired me about that was I read something online that my mom sent to me. It was about a girl who was the valedictorian and accepted to Stanford and she decided to go to some small school in California and major in music because that's what her passion was and what she wanted to do. There's no formula to follow – it's all what you make of it.