Hard work, role models pave path for Ames, Oakes
by Janine Giordano
 | | | RSCS valedictorian Erika Ames (top) and salutatorian Brittany Oakes. (Photos submitted) | |
Being top of the class is no easy task, but for some people, role models make the effort a little less daunting. This year’s valedictorian of Richfield Springs Central School’s class of 2008, Erika Ames, has at least two inspirations guiding her along her scholastic path, her grandmother and older sister. “My grandmother, Dorothy W. Ames, was valedictorian of the Richfield Springs Central School class of 1940,” Ames told the Mercury recently. Sixty-eight years later, the Geneva-bound RSCS senior has claimed the honor of head of her class with a 97.27 grade point average. Her sister Marissa, 19, attends Geneva College, where Ames will also be going in the fall to study engineering. Joining Ames at the podium this coming graduation day will be salutatorian Brittany Oakes, with a 96.56 grade point average. “In 10th grade my biggest goal was to make the principal’s list and I just repeated it from there,” said Oakes. A lifelong resident of Richfield Springs, along with her parents Charles and Mary, her sisters Marissa, 19, and Bethany, 14, and their dog Oliver, Ames is a member of the National Honor Society, current secretary of that organization and is a former member of the Junior Honor Society. She has also worked with the yearbook, ran on the cross country team, participated in Girls State, is the former Student Council president and has taught as a Sunday school teacher at the Christ Church in New Hartford. She plans to graduate from Geneva and “find a job as an engineer,” she said. “You can do almost anything you want if you work at it.” Oakes, also a lifelong resident of Richfield Springs where she and her brother Jeremy, 11, were raised by her parents Lynda and Robert, will be attending Union College in Schenectady in the fall, where she will be studying mathematics and astronomy.
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