TERRIFIC TEENS Next stop Harvard for Machias 16-year-old who says mom’s guidance paid off

Beryl Lipton will have plenty to say when she gives the Class of 2006 salutatorian’s address at the graduation ceremony for Machias Memorial High School in June.

Lipton, who has earned straight A’s since kindergarten – save for one B – and was accepted early to Harvard University, will likely credit her mother for setting high standards and expecting excellence from her four children ranging in age from 13 to 16. The 16-year-old senior, whose grade point average is 98.37, says she wasn’t allowed to date until this year and television is taboo in their household.

“Ever since I was little, we were told to aim for the best,” Lipton recalled in the Machias High cafeteria, the week before spring break.

Lipton’s one B received in a psychology class last fall kept her a fraction of a point from being the Class of 2006’s valedictorian. That honor went to another member of the Lady Bulldogs basketball team. “My mom was upset more than me,” she related, referring to the B. “I said, ‘Mom, come on, I got into Harvard!'”

Lipton spent most of last summer living in Cambridge, Mass., as a participant in Harvard’s special summer program for exceptional high school students. Limited to two courses, she chose pre-calculus and biomedical ethics. She plans to attend medical school after college and aspires to be a pediatrician.

“It’s about helping people,” she explained. “I also like anatomy. Things that other kids think are gross, I think are cool.”

With her long-term goals in mind, Lipton has seized every opportunity while attending Machias High. She is enrolled in the Early College program at the University of Maine at Machias, enabling her to take seven college-level classes for high school credit. Not all were high-pressure academics. Drums with music teacher Dwayne Ingalls, who has taught her for two semesters, is her favorite.

Lipton finds time, too, to play basketball and run cross country. She juggles extracurricular activities such as math, chess and and drama club, plus mock legislative sessions in Augusta. This spring she will try her hand at softball – “just to prove I can.”

Educators spotted her talents early and had her skip first grade. A teacher was assigned to work with her individually in kindergarten in Harrington. “I wasn’t allowed to color,” she allowed sheepishly.

At Rose M. Gaffney School in Machias, Principal Mitchell Look remembers Lipton as “driven.” He has had all the Lipton children as students. “She [Beryl] always aspired to high things, even in junior high.”

Lipton lives across the street from the Court Street Cemetery in Machias. She incorporated the old burial ground into her essay when applying to Harvard. “I wrote how Machias is a small town, safe and secure, where everyone is close and you know everybody,” she said. “I also wrote that everybody needs a change of scenery sometimes, too.”

Next stop: Cambridge, Mass., and Harvard.

– Katherine Cassidy