At the top of their class

Valedictorian Helaina Regen-Tuero and salutatorian David Kaufman are the two top students for the class of 2012 at Hewlett High School.

Both Regen-Tuero and Kaufman will be attending Brown University in Rhode Island. Regen-Tuero was accepted into the school’s Liberal Medical Education program and has taken part in volunteer programs and internships to learn about the medical field, including an internship with the highly selective Feinstein Institute of Medical Research.

A four-year member of the varsity gymnastic teams, Regen-Tuero also ran spring track and was a member of the Math and Science clubs. She is also a talented and award-winning photographer who freelances for the Herald newspapers, contributed photos to the school newspaper, Spectrum, and a national gold medalist in Photography for the Scholastic Art and Writing Award.

This year she took college and AP courses and through the high school’s Albany Science program has conducted her own research and submitted the work to the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology. Last year, Regen-Tuero won the Asterean Award for having the highest junior class average.

Described as an articulate and relentless individual who is intellectually curious and an abstract thinker with a unique sense of humor, Kaufman served as editor in chief of Spectrum and was involved with the publication throughout his years at Hewlett.

Kaufman won the Quill and Scroll awards as a sophomore and junior, respectively. He was a youth leadership forum facilitator when he attended PEGASUS Communications’ Systems Thinking in Action Conference with District Superintendent Dr. Joyce Bisso. The focus is to have the Hewlett-Woodmere community works towards being more sustainable and efficient.

He has been a part of the high school’s Euro-Challenge and Fed Challenge teams, along with being on the Hewlett squad that competed in “The Challenge” a Jeopardy-style game show for high school students in the tri-state area.