Northern Guilford SALUTATORIAN

by PATTI STOKES

picking up donated food from Lowes Foods, driving the items back to a church where the backpacks were filled with food, and then helping deliver them.

Jack Griffin

“But it wasn’t a goal –it happened as a result of other goals I have,” he said. “My goals were to advance in the math and sciences, not to be class valedictorian.”

Describing himself as a “big astrophysics guy,” Jack said he has loved math and physics for as long as he can remember, and even as a kid he was drawn to books, TV shows and YouTube videos about astrophysics. It was the TV show “Cosmos” that he said especially inspired his love for physics.

That love was so intense that in 10th grade he worked with his principal and Guilford County Schools to allow

“I’m just fascinated by physics,” he said. “I definitely want to continue research in college. Also, right now at my job we are incorporating machine learning, or artificial intelligence, in our physics research.” He looks forward to learning more about that when he attends Stanford University in California this August, where he said he’s “excited to have a new experience in a different place.”

Besides his course studies and research job, Jack also enjoys playing golf, lifting weights – and rowing. He stands 6 feet, 7 inches, and said his sister’s rowing coach encouraged him to take up the sport about a year ago. He

Noor Ahmidouch

Noor Ahmidouch credits her sister, who is nine years older and also graduated from Northern High School, with playing an instrumental role in her life and with providing academic and personal guidance throughout her high school years.

“Nobody had a greater effect on me than she did,” Noor said. “She was my tutor, counselor, and devoted so much time to helping me.”

In high school Noor said she particularly enjoyed her math and science classes, as well as sociology and geology – and she found a public speaking class to be “super helpful.”

She valued her role as volunteer chair of Northern’s Backpack Buddies program, which entailed regularly

“I coordinated with school counselors at various schools, which took a lot of time,” she said. But she also found time to volunteer and to work at Greensboro Science Center, perform microbiology research at NC A&T, and work for Guilford County Schools as a math tutor for elementary students.

“I loved tutoring,” Noor said, adding that she plans to do it again this summer.

Besides being on the varsity track team for two years, she also participated in Science Olympiad, the Beta Club, was a Nighthawk ambassador, a student rep on Northern’s School Improvement Team, and served as president of National Honor Society.

And she founded a nonprofit called “Magical Meerkat,” which sells crocheted animals and clay animal