In January, Locust Valley High School announced Inshaal Abid and Abigail Maselli as the valedictorian and salutatorian of the Class of 2025, respectively. These standout scholars have been incredible role models for their classmates and the next generation of Falcons in the classroom and in their extracurricular interests.
Valedictorian Inshaal Abid achieved a cumulative weighted average of 108.50 across her four years. Through her hard work, Abid earned her place as a member of the AP Scholars, Foreign Language Honor Society for Italian and National Honor Society and achieved numerous commendations such as Advanced Regents Diploma with Honors, IB Diploma Candidate, LVCSD Diploma with Distinction, Mastery in March, Mastery in Science, NYS Seal of Biliteracy and National Merit Commended Student.
Abid singled out her art teacher Melanie Mooney as one of her biggest inspirations in the building. The class isn’t one of her 13 IB courses, but Abid feels it is an important chance for her to express herself.
“It is kind of shocking for people that my favorite subject is art,” Abid said. “Ms. Mooney has been so supportive throughout high school, and she’s helped me be brave enough to pursue what I am passionate about. Art is a place where I can relax from what’s going on in school and my personal life.”
Abid plans to major in psychology after unexpectedly falling in love with the subject during her IB class with John Canavan last year. “He made it a subject that I wanted to know more about,” Abid said. “It was a difficult class, but I never felt burdened by it, and it made me want to know why people do the things they do.”
Salutatorian Abigail Maselli accumulated a weighted average of 108.22. Maselli is a member of the Foreign Language Honor Society for Italian, the National Art Honor Society and the National Honor Society. She is also an AP Scholar, an IB Diploma Candidate, a NYS Seal of Biliteracy Candidate, a Scholar Athlete for both the field hockey and track teams, and has earned an Advanced Regents Diploma with Honors, an LVCSD Diploma with Distinction, Mastery in Math and Mastery in Science.
“I’ve had to balance commitments to sports and theater with my academics, so there have been many late nights of coming back from practices, games or rehearsals and having to go right into studying,” Maselli said. “So, finding out I’d achieved this was a really nice moment to recognize that all the can’t stop, won’t stop work was worth it.”
On top of her studies and sports, Maselli is a dedicated writer, director and sometimes actress in film projects with her friends. She plans to go to film school next year, which is not a surprise to any of her classmates or teachers as her works have been huge hits at the high school’s annual festival and have earned her spots in the Long Island International Film Festival and the Long Island Media Arts Festival and the All-American High School Film Festival.
Her love of film and theater goes back to elementary school plays and the film club, which she has been a part of since sixth grade. Her dream career is to work in both film and theater as a director or stage manager. She credits her teacher Roger Boucher and drama department mainstay Nicole Stiegelbauer-Montenegro with growing her love for film and theater.
“He (Mr. Boucher) has really shown me how to be a critic of my own work in a supportive way,” Maselli said. “He’s also given me that belief and trust in myself that I will bring to college with me.”