At the time of our interview, the number one ranking among seniors was shared between Kate McGeehan and Athena Panton. We decided that it would be a good idea to speak with both students about their experiences and their plans for the future. When asked to explain what exactly motivated her to be such an exceptional student, Athena Panton had to think on it for a moment “I think I was actually in middle school before I realized that going to college was an option; I thought that was just something you had to do when you grew up.” In other words, Athena comes from a home culture wherein a college education is an expectation.

Upon graduation, Athena hopes to attend the University of Pennsylvania to study “Something that will make me a lot of money”. She will need to earn a decent living to realize her dream of traveling the world and learning different languages. But, more specifically, Athena has aspirations to work in the fields of marketing or consulting. If, however, this doesn’t work out, she wouldn’t mind trying her hand at stand-up comedy as many of the people she looks up to are comediennes. Tina Fey, Amy Pohler and Mindy Kaling are some her personal favorites.

When she’s not studying, Athena practices gymnastics, diving, dance and other activities such as key club. Obviously, for Athena, relaxation is a rare treat. One of the questions we like to ask in these interviews is if money was no object, who would you hire to be your own personal tutor? Athena would hire her brother-in-law. She explains that he is wonderfully creative and eccentric and, at a basic level, she just appreciates his mind. The hardest class Athena has taken here at THS was undoubtedly A.P. U.S. History. She relates that her difficulty wasn’t necessarily because of the content itself, but more because she had little interest in the content and her lack of enthusiasm made the process exceedingly difficult for her.

Given all that Athena has going on, one may wonder how she stays focused. Her number one rule is ‘don’t procrastinate’. If Athena has something to do she simply gets it done rather than putting it off. However, she also admits that her ‘motivation’ ebbs and flows. Sometimes she’s excited and motivated and other times, she feels like she just needs a break from it all but that’s probably to be expected with somebody who has so much going on in her life. Given what we’ve seen from Athena so far, we believe she’ll find success in whatever she ultimately decides to pursue as a career and we wish her the very best of good fortune along the way!