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Don Arey report card
Highlands Students Stand in High Regard by Universities
Highlands Students Stand in High Regard by Universities
Donor: Don Arey, class of 1958
Author: Don Arey, class of 1958
Web Page Designer: Jade Farley, class of 2027
Normally, as an average student, I would not want to publicly display any of my report cards. That includes this Highlands High School physics report card from my senior year (1958). However, my story has a happy ending, and the report card is a reminder to me that I graduated from a very high-quality school.
The story begins at a “college night” at Highlands during my senior year. Representatives from many universities were there to spark student interest in their schools through brochures and Q&A sessions. I was interested in engineering and, although Northwestern University was ranked high in this category, it was their attractive campus stretched out along Lake Michigan that immediately caught my attention. That’s probably why I was an average student! Anyway, it became my first choice and I applied with the full knowledge that applicants had to rank in the upper third of their high school class and that I missed that requirement by a couple of percentage points.
It turned out that dreams can come true. As I recall, the letter from the admissions office made it clear that I was admitted, primarily because someone in their office was from the Fort Thomas area and knew Highlands to be well above academic averages. I took that as a challenge, and although there were other incentives (my mother’s expectations and the cost of a college diploma), the education I received at Highlands gave me the confidence and background to stay the course and receive a mechanical engineering degree from Northwestern.
While this story has a happy ending, it also encourages students who occasionally struggle to earn an average score in a challenging course here at Highlands. This tale additionally points to the prestige recognized regionally as Highlands High School graduates… something that can make us all proud.
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