By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — Commencement may be over at Greens Farms Academy, but a promising future is just beginning for its top graduates.

The Class of 2024 valedictorian Zoe Monschein of Norwalk and salutatorian Azra Ozgen of Weston enjoyed the past week attending numerous activities with classmates, including the prom, a senior trip to Block Island, an awards ceremony and, finally, graduation on Friday.

Both young women are interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers and both will attend universities well suited to help them follow those dreams. Monschein plans to study physics at the University of California at Berkeley, and Ozgen will study at the College of Engineering at Cornell University.

And each of these top students credit their education at GFA for stimulating their interest in their future careers.

“I’m really grateful for my classmates and especially my teachers,” said Monschein, who attended Norwalk public schools until she began high school studies at GFA. “Going here gave me a chance to further my academics in a way that I couldn’t have done anywhere else,” she said.

Ozgen, who attended GFA from first grade through senior year, said she enjoyed comfortable connections with classmates through all 12 years.

“It was really cool to grow up with the same people and see everyone grow and have their own achievements,” she said.

Ozgen also credited participating with the Water Rat swim team at the Westport Weston Family YMCA for her success not just in swimming, but in academics.

“It taught me so much about hard work and resilience,” she said of swimming at the YMCA, where she went every afternoon after classes and many mornings before school. “I don’t think I would have been a salutatorian without that.”

Monschein also spent many hours outside class time playing her favorite sport, softball, competing with a club team in New York. Because the team was based an hour away, she did homework in the car both ways while her father drove her, she said, “as well as during every free period in school.”

When she wasn’t competing with the New York team, she played softball, soccer and basketball at GFA.

Both top GFA graduates participated in the school’s Advanced Inquiry program, working closely with their sponsoring teachers on an advanced project. Although students can work on projects in many disciplines, including music or literature, both young women chose science and mathematics for their projects.

Monschein said teachers at GFA are helping to get her project published in a scientific journal, which is very exciting, she said.

The GFA valedictorian and salutatorian were pleased their academic achievements were acknowledged.

“It’s nice to be recognized,” Ozgen said.

“I’m really proud of it,” agreed Monschein. “I worked hard for it.”

They certainly did.

Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman and has taught journalism at New York and Southern Connecticut State universities.