Honored as high school scholar, valedictorian

Gardiner Kreglow, the son of Lori Gardiner Kreglow and J. Stephen Kreglow, of Bethlehem, and the grandson of William and Roseanne Gardiner of Nesquehoning, was recently honored at Liberty High School's Commencement as the Liberty Scholar.

He ranked number one in his class of 668 students with a GPA of 5.004, the highest in Liberty's history. He also had the honor of serving as president of the Class of 2010 and president of Student Government for a school 2,844 students.

Kreglow led his class into the commencement services and received a standing ovation from his classmates when the school principal, Joann Durante, announced his achievements. During his commencement address, Kreglow reflected on the history of his class and vast diversity of his fellow students. He challenged his classmates to discover and utilize their talents to make the world a better place and to take pride in whatever they do in the future.

Kreglow's achievements include receiving the Donley Award for Academic Excellence and Achievement, the Liberty Scholar Athlete Award for tennis, the AP Scholar Award, and the John F. Kennedy Scholarship Award. In his junior year, he received the Dwight D. Eisenhower Leadership Award from West Point and was named by Next Magazine as one of the "Top 50 Outstanding Juniors in Pennsylvania."

He was the first student in the state to be appointed to and complete a two-year term as a non-voting member of the Pennsylvania State Board of Education, where he represented 1.8 million students across the state. He served as a speaker at the Pennsylvania Association of School Boards' Conference, the Pennsylvania Association of Student Councils' State Conference and Executive Meeting, and the Pennsylvania First Lady's Student Summit on Civic Education.

Kreglow has been accepted to Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., one of the nation's top 10 institutions of higher learning. He begins his studies there in the fall.