Hayley Romney

Our United Dairymen of Idaho Distinguished Student Award winner for this week decided back in ninth grade that she would get complete high school with a 4.0 GPA. With all the AP classes she’s taking, she actually has a 4.05 GPA. It’s that kind of determination that helped Madison High School senior Hayley Romney win the award.

Hayley is the concert master of the magnificent symphony orchestra at Madison. Playing violin in the orchestra has been a highlight of Hayley’s High School experience.

“I really love doing orchestra – I’ve done it ever since middle school,” Haley said. “I love music, it’s one of my favorite things, so it’s been great every year to participate in that, and I’ve been able to make some great friends too.”

Just last weekend Hayley had the honor of playing in the All-Northwest Orchestra program in Portland, Oregon. She was one of the few selected out of six northwest states. Another high school highlight for Haley has been the Advanced Placement or AP classes.

“I’ve had some really tough classes like AP Biology and AP English, and it’s nice to be in a high level class with other kids and to be able to learn really tough things that really stretch me and help me to work hard and just advance more, so that’s been really great for me,” Hayley said.

Hayley also feels strongly about human rights issues. She’d like to participate in efforts to end the genocide in Darfur and after college she wants to work at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. She feels strongly that people need to know what happened. Even as Hayley looks to the future she looks back at the importance of her high school years and the lessons she’s learned.

“It’s a very important time in life – there’s never any other time like it,” Hayley said. “I’d just say work really hard because this determines where you’re going to be in life and make lots of friends – there are so many great people in high school. Enjoy it as much as you can because it’s great.”