WHS Class of 2017 has three top students

Shona Heywood is the Salutatorian for Wahkiakum High School's Class of 2017. She will graduate with a 3.993.

Shona will attend the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, her father's alma mater, in the fall. She plans to get a degree in business before going on to culinary school, preferably in Paris at Le Cordon Bleu. She knows that admittance to the famous school is competitive, so she is also considering the New York Culinary Institute of America.

Cooking is one of Shona's greatest pleasures and she hopes one day to open her own restaurant.

"That's my end game right now," she said. "I cook all the time. If there is any cooking at school, I get volunteered."

Shona participated in sports at Wa-Ki-Hi, but realized early that she was more interested in pursuing work. She can be found at the Wahkiakum Chamber of Commerce, is a lifeguard at the pool during the summer, and also assists in the kitchen at the Inn at Crippen Creek when she is needed.

"I'm learning clerical skills and interpersonal skills," Shona said. "I realized it would be a lot more beneficial than sports in the long run."

As for school, she really enjoyed the advanced placement (AP) language course she took last year.

"I love and hate my AP courses because they are crazy hard and I have so much homework," Shona said, "but I learn a lot of stuff that is interesting and applicable to life."

She is grateful to several teachers at Wahkiakum High School, and for a myriad of reasons.

"Ms. Petterson has probably taught me the most," Shona said. "She has pushed me the hardest academically. Her AP classes are rigorous. Ms. Haberlach is the most emotionally supportive. She gives us snacks all the time and makes sure that we're taken care of. She helps us with any problems we have with any subject because she is insanely brilliant. And Mr. Cox is another one of my favorite teachers because he's witty and we have that back and forth dialogue all the time."

When pressed for a funny recollection of her class, she is taken back to two separate Halloween memories in elementary school involving the same person.

"One of my classmates, Jack Leavitt, loves to hunt, fixes fences, drives tractors, and is as different from me as you can be. In second grade, the dress I was wearing for my Halloween costume ripped probably six inches in the back. I was in tears and Jack said, 'Don't worry, I have my sewing kit.' We were seven years old and he repaired my dress. In fourth grade, my sister was Hermione from Harry Potter, and I was Hermione's cat. My tail fell off and there was Jack, ready with his sewing kit."

Shona is the daughter of Duncan Cruickshank and Heidi Heywood.