North Shore Hebrew Academy valedictorians Kayla Kreinik and Ruben Prawer reflected on their personal growth over the past four years ahead of graduating on Tuesday, June 9.
Kreinik said she quickly began to join programs and clubs as a freshman. With the help of North Shore’s director of student life, Debra Gold, Kreinik said, the foundation was set for her to continue coordinating community service programs and join a plethora of clubs and activities throughout her four years of high school.
“In 9th grade I started talking with [Gold] and developed a great relationship with her,” Kreinik said. “Afterwards, I joined the art club, painting and drawing club, the school paper, the traveling math team, fashion club and mock trial.”
“Kayla is a bright, mature, responsible and reliable young lady,” Gold said. “I’ve been teaching for 40 years, and I have never met anyone in that caliber. The confidence in herself grew so tremendously in four years. She came in shy and reserved, but when she bloomed, her rose turned into a bouquet of roses.”
Prawer said his success in and out of the classroom was attributed to a program he attended called JOLT Israel, which he attended in the summer going into his junior year. The five-week trip to Israel provided Prawer and others who attended with leadership skills by packaging food for those in need and running a camp for siblings of disabled children, he said.
“That trip was probably that turning point in my high school experience,” Prawer said. “I knew it then and I know it now – that trip is the highlight of my entire high school experience and life so far.”
After the trip, Prawer said, he immediately recognized himself trying to make a positive impact in school with several friends who also attended the trip with him. Prawer said he and a few of his friends started to play music every Friday in the lobby of the school to get everyone in the spirit of Shabbat.
“It’s hard to articulate how much that trip changed my life,” Prawer said. “I noticed I would start hanging out with more friends after school and just felt more comfortable in and out of the classroom.”
Both Kreinik and Prawer said they will be taking gap years before going to college. Kreinik said she will attend Stern College for Women after her gap year in Israel, while Prawer said he will attend Yeshiva University’s honors program after his gap year.
Both students touted their study habits when speaking on why they felt they were selected as this year’s valedictorians.
“I had to put in time and effort for work and studying,” Prawer said. “I want to spend my gap year before attending Yeshiva University to study, develop my character and work on myself, along with intellectual pursuits.”
“If I were to go back in time and give my freshmen self some advice, I’d say to never be afraid to ask questions,” Kreinik said. “It’s hard to learn anything when you don’t ask any questions to begin with.”
Prawer and Kreinik admitted that graduating without a traditional ceremony was not the way either anticipated capping off their four years of high school. Regardless, both advised their classmates and fellow seniors throughout the nation to take this time and reflect on all the good that high school offered them.
“It’s hard and difficult to not be graduating traditionally or signing each other’s yearbooks, but there is a lot to look forward to in life,” Kreinik said. “Look fondly upon the last four years, but remember they were just a foundation to the rest of your life. This is not the end.”
“It definitely sucks, and there’s no other way of framing it,” Prawer said. “I feel it, we all feel it. We all should try to come out of this craziness with something changed about yourself. It’s easy to have epiphanies and great personal growth during the good times, but what’s difficult is to have them in the bad times as well.”
