by Jim Boyle
Editor
Savannah Seiter has become the second in her family to become a valedictorian.
The first to graduate at the top of a class was her grandmother, who attended high school in Sunset, Louisiana. She paid someone to give her speech because she had already accepted a job out of state.
Photo by Jim Boyle
Savannah Seiter main sport was softball, but she was also a good tennis player.
Seiter joked with her parents, Mike and Kathy Seiter, that she should continue the family tradition and have someone else give a speech. Her parents didn’t go for it, she said.
All joking aside, Seiter wouldn’t miss her graduation for the world.
She shared the speaking part of graduation with Hannah Bremer, the school’s salutatorian, who was locked in a virtual dead heat for top student honors until the very last day of school and finals at Rogers High School.
She said the two plan to talk about the Class of 2015’s new beginning.
“What defined you in high school doesn’t have to continue past that,” Seiter said.
Seiter has been a scholar and an athlete so far, serving as a co-captain in her main sport of softball and in a supporting role on the tennis team her senior year.
Among her most memorable high school experiences was playing on the softball team her junior year when it won a conference title for the first time in school history and hitting a home run in the game to help seal it.
In tennis she was named one of the most valuable players and received all-state academic honors.
She was also a member of National Honor Society and one of the concessions managers her junior year. She was a member of the school IMPACT leadership program and a tutor.
Her favorite classes were AP biology, anatomy and first aid as well as AP statistics and AP U.S. history. Debates in English class and dissections with her friends in anatomy stand out among her favorite classroom experiences. Among the toughest classes were AP calculus and College in the Schools macroeconomics.
Seiter’s biology and anatomy teacher John Kapsner said Seiter has the discipline most high school students lack.
His first impression of her was that she was “all business” in terms of her learning and her grades.
“As I got to know her better, I found that the seriousness she displayed was more about her desire to learn and achieve in all aspects of her life,” Kapsner said. “She works extremely hard and asks good questions when she doesn’t understand something. Her dedication to being a good student and single focus on that is what separates her from other students I have had.”
A self-proclaimed perfectionist battled through difficult times by trying to stay organized and not procrastinate, Seiter said.
“I got lucky and have the ability to function on very little sleep,” she said. “It doesn’t hurt to have a great group of really smart friends to study with, too.”
Seiter was not focused on becoming the school’s valedictorian, but scoring A’s in all her classes became a goal early on. It was more about proving to herself she could do it than competing.
“(In high school) we all knew where we were in terms of GPA and class rank, but we all just wanted to do well and help each other out,” she said.
In the end, it was Seiter who came out on top.
Her scholarly grandmother eventually married, and she and husband managed a resort for part of their lives. Seiters parents also own and operate a business, but Savannah Seiter does not have such a desire.
She plans to major in biology at Gustavus Adolphus College and then move on to medical school or go into the environmental sciences.
She’s heard it might not be possible to get all A’s in college, but it will still be a goal, she said. She’s decided to end her sports career, which was a “hard call.” She was very competitive on athletic fields and had many friends. She will always remember when Rogers beat Elk River in softball because of all the friendships and rivalries across school lines.
Seiter attended Mary Queen of Peace Catholic School for kindergarten, Otsego Elementary School for her primary grades, Rogers Middle School and then Rogers High School.
She’s looking forward to more independence and freedom, she said, and will continue to be a determined and stubborn perfectionist.
“High school was fun, but I am excited to move on to college and new experiences,” Seiter said.