Salem High Senior Earns MA Superintendents Academic Excellence Award

SALEM, MA — A National Honor Society officer and co-founder of the Robotics Club at Salem High School was honored with the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents Award for Academic Excellence.

Salem High senior Tilda Rieder was honored as a senior who exemplifies academic excellence, model character and leadership qualities and consistent pursuit of excellence.

Superintendent Steve Zrike and Salem Mayor and School Committee Chair Dominick Pangallo presented Rieder with her award at the last School Committee meeting.

"I feel very honored to receive this award," Rieder said. "I feel like the Salem school district has supported me from elementary school and on. I'm really honored to feel that I've made an impact on the community and to be recognized for it."

Rieder has a 4.7 cumulative grade-point average and is ranked in the top 5 percent of her class. She co-founded the Robotics Club at the end of her sophomore year along with junior Cora Dawson and has helped build the members to 20 students.

"Tilda has been setting the standard at Salem High School in engineering and physics since her freshman year," Salem High science teacher William Warren said. "She is wonderfully organized, very positive and personable and highly capable.

"She's one of the top three students I've known in my 26-year-long career."

Rieder is the co-president of the National Art Honor Society and vice president of NHS. She is also a four-year member of the Model UN team and part of the Student Mentors program in which she helps first-year SHS seniors adapt to high school.

"Tilda is an independent and critical thinker who has not only excelled academically but has applied her enthusiasm for STEM to build community and partnership at SHS," Zrike said. "She frequently challenges herself and her classmates to broaden their vision, expand their views and to be open to new ideas and experiences."

She also volunteers for Salem Sound Coastwatch and works in the children's department of the Salem Public Library.

Rieder said she plans to study mechanical engineering in college.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)