Garrett Ruff and Natalie Northrup were named the valedictorian and salutatorian of the Class of 2018 at HF-L. Photos from HF-L yearbook
A strong interest in the sciences, a passion and drive for helping other people and friendly natures are some of the things that Garrett Ruff and Natalie Northrup share. The two are also at the head of their Class of 2018 at Honeoye Falls-Lima High School.
Ruff, the son of Renee and Ray Ruff, was named the valedictorian at HF-L this year with a 4.195 academic average. He will be attending Cornell University this fall to study Human Biology and ultimately go the pre-medicine route. He also considered the University of Pennsylvania, Lafayette and other Ivy League colleges.
“I am looking at pre-med and going into orthopedics and working with athletes,” Ruff said.
That is not surprising given that Ruff was a two-sport star at HF-L, playing for the varsity basketball team for three years and for the varsity lacrosse team for four years. In basketball, Ruff was the starting point guard all three of his seasons, spending the last two as a team captain. This year, he helped lead the Cougars to 15 wins, the Monroe County Division 4 title and to the Section V Class A2 semifinals (the second time in three years that he helped the team reach the semis). He holds the school record for assists with 318 and averaged 5.2 points a game with 120 assists, 48 rebounds and 17 steals this past winter. He received the team’s Cougar Award the past two years and was a Monroe County Exceptional Senior and an All-League second team selection this year.
As good as he was in basketball, Ruff excelled at lacrosse and will play the sport at Cornell. As a junior, the midfielder helped the Cougars to the Section V Class C championship game and compiled 52 goals with 20 assists. A captain this spring, he recorded 45 goals, 26 assists, a team-high 66 ground balls and 13 takes as the squad advanced to the Section V Class C semifinals. His honors this spring were Monroe County Exceptional Senior, All-League first team and U.S. Lacrosse All-American team honors, one of only six players from Section V honored as an All-American.
Ruff’s academic prowess also earned him U.S. Lacrosse Academic All-American honors as a junior, one of a select few in Section V to earn that award. That award did not come easy as he chose to challenge himself with a number of Advanced Placement courses such as AP European History, AP U.S. History, AP Chemistry, AP English Language and Composition, AP Physics, AP Biology and AP Calculus BC.
A member of National Honor Society and the French Honor Society, Ruff has also been a Link Crew leader mentoring younger students and tutored other students. The humble 19-year-old began volunteering at the Manor School as a junior during his free set and arranged his schedule to do the same this year, sincerely and kindly helping struggling students.
Outside of school, Ruff worked at Mendon Golf Club last summer and plays competitive travel lacrosse for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He has also been a volunteer coach for the youth basketball and lacrosse teams
Ruff has received numerous academic awards, including a New York State 2018 Scholarship for Academic Excellence, Science Department Awards and Social Studies Department Awards.
Asked what HF-L has meant to him, Ruff didn’t hesitate.
“Academically, being given a lot of different opportunities to take college level courses and having great teachers to interact with over the years,” said Ruff, who started HF-L in kindergarten. “The other is going to school and playing sports with my best friends.”
Northrup, the daughter of Terri and Ken Northrup, is the HF-L Class of 2018 salutatorian with a 4.145 grade point average. She will attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology this fall after considering several other schools. She will be studying energy technology and development with a major in civil and environmental engineering or earth/atmosphere/planetary sciences.
“What I would like to do is save the planet and work with sustainability,” Northrup said. “I want to make green energy technology easier and more affordable for people and reduce the waste that comes from using plastic.”
The 18-year-old is very passionate about the environment. Northrup began an independent research project in her backyard and developed the most effective, and quickest, way to break down compostable matter into high quality compost. She used one of the school’s small science labs to test some extraction techniques for removing fats from spoiled milk for the purpose of making bio-diesel. In addition, she created an after school program at the Manor School to teach children about the importance of taking care of the planet and has trained a team of peers from the high school to help implement the program. She also taught a STEAM course over the summer to Manor and Middle School students.
“I am very passionate about the integration of sustainability in the way we live our lives,” she said. “I grew up in a family focused on sustainability. In my sophomore year, I saw a tech talk on the differences of landfills and compost piles and how we overlook that the things we do affect the environment.”
Northrup filled her academic schedule with challenging courses such as AP European History, AP U.S. History, AP English Language and Composition, AP Chemistry, AP Physics, AP Spanish Language and Culture, AP English Literature and Composition and AP Calculus BC.
A member of National Honor Society and Spanish Honor Society, Northrup has also been involved with the Big Cougar/Little Cougar program for four years and with the Link Crew for two years. She has played tenor saxophone with the HF-L High School Jazz Ensemble for three years. She has been in the Odyssey of the Mind since fifth grade. She swam on the varsity girls swim team for six years, placing 18th in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2 minutes, 32.49 seconds and 18th in 1:09.05 in the 100 butterfly and helping the 400 freestyle relay to sixth (3:51.73) at the Section V Class B Championship and All-League second team. She competed for the varsity nordic ski team for five years, placing third in 21:36.9 at the Section V Championship and second at the state championship (20:59.7) and earning All-League honors. She completed her senior sports career by playing on the Unified Basketball team for the first time, scoring 17 points for Team 1.
Northrup co-founded the TEDx club at the high school and organized the TEDx event at HF-L last month. She also founded the EcoGeeks Environmental Education Club, a branch of the high school’s Green Team. She is so passionate about both groups that she requested that a $1,000 grant component of the AXA Achievement Scholarship that she received from AXA Foundation be split between the two groups.
Outside of school, Northrup has been a lifeguard and swim instructor for two summers at Markus Park. She also reached out to Cornell University and was accepted to work as a research assistant on a study which examined bees and shadowed an entomologist at Cornell. She attended the Washington Youth Summit on the Environment, was accepted into the College of the Atlantics Presidential Scholar Fly-In program where she was involved in in-depth discussions surrounding the future of the planet and set up her own meetings with engineers and geologists from Stantec
Engineering to learn what was being developed in the world of environmental protection and sustainability.
Along with the AXA Achievement Scholarship, Northrup has earned several honors, including the Notre Dame Junior of the Year last year and 2018 National Merit Program commended student honors, the New York State Comptroller Achievement Award, an English Department Award and a Math Department Award this year. She was also recognized as a Spectrum News Scholar Athlete last fall.
Asked what her years at HF-L have meant to her, Northrup didn’t need much time to answer.
“At HF-L, I have felt safe, comfortable and supported by my parents, my peers and my teachers,” she said. “I think my HF-L experience has shaped me into the person I am today and that means a lot.”
