Valedictorian Says Barnegat Gave Her Tools She Needed to Excell

Lauren Miterko was a do-it-all student at Barnegat High School.

The 18-year-old valedictorian of Barnegat’s Class of 2011 was a National Honors student, played varsity soccer and varsity lacrosse and was a member of Peers Reaching Out to Society, a community service group that works with younger kids to keep them off drugs.

So how did she manage all that in addition to being the class’ top scholar?

“It’s part of my personality,” she said. “I’m very determined and eager to get everything done.”

She also gives a lot of credit to the school she can now call her alma mater.

“I like how all the teachers are ready to help you improve whenever you need them,” said Miterko. “They’re always there to supportive.” That environment helped her balance her life as a student athlete, she said.

And now she’s excited for the next step. Miterko heads to Quinnipiac University in Connecticut this fall. She’ll enter the school’s honors program with an eye on studying biology and becoming a medical researcher.

In the meantime, she’s looking forward to another Shore summer working on Long Beach Island and hanging out with friends.

“I’m going to miss my family and friends,” she said. “They have shaped me to be the person that I’ve become, and all that I care about. They were my crutches. They’re just always there.”

Still, she said, “I’m ready.”

After all, as she told her classmates in her valedictorian address on Thursday, change is inevitable

“Graduation is not the end, it is the beginning,” she said in her speech. And as they go forward, she said, she and the rest of the Class of 2011 might forget the trivial aspects of high school, but they’ll remember what it meant to be Bengals, and they’ll carry that with them.

“We are older, we are wiser and we are stronger,” she said.