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Friends share Beddingfield’s top honor

By Sarah A. Wise
NL Staff Writer
21 June 2007 — Neither Poonam Ambelal nor Barbara DeRatt set out to become the valedictorian of this year’s graduating class at Beddingfield High School, but the girls think that their friendship with each other and the support of their parents did a lot to help them earn the honor.

“Having Poonam as a best friend helped a lot,” said Barbara. “There were times that I thought I wanted to quit, but she kept me going.”

Both Poonam and Barbara participated in the International Baccalaureate Programme (IB), which is a course of study that offers challenging coursework and promotes international understanding. The girls say their participation in the program helped to make their grade point averages the most competitive.

As they completed their senior year, the girls say they figured, based on past performance, that one of them would end up with the honor of valedictorian. However, they were a little surprised when it was announced that they would share the honor.

“It was a little surprising,” said Poonam.

“Well, we do make basically the same grades,” added Barbara.

Over the years, the two girls have been study and homework pals, as well as classmates and teammates. Both Barbara and Poonam have participated in sports at Beddingfield, and were members of the soccer team together.

Poonam was a co-captain for the soccer team during her senior year. She also played tennis for the Bruins.

Barbara participated in volleyball and swimming, in addition to her pursuits on the soccer field. She will be continuing her career in volleyball next year at N.C. Wesleyan, where she has chosen to attend college.

She also applied to North Carolina State, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Barton College. She received scholarship offers from both NCSU and Barton as well.

However, the package she received at Wesleyan outweighed the others, and in the end was her first choice because it allowed her to continue her volleyball career.

“I would get to play volleyball there, and it cost me less money to go to Wesleyan,” she said.

Barbara also received a full tuition scholarship from Wesleyan, which eases the bills for her education. She hopes to major in biology and chemistry if she stays at Wesleyan all four years of college, but she admits that she’s not one hundred percent sure about her future plans at Wesleyan.

Poonam doesn’t know what she wants to major in for her undergraduate, but she already has plans for the next step beyond that.

“I’ve always wanted to be an optometrist,” she said.

She will be attending UNC in the fall. She didn’t apply anywhere else because she applied to UNC for early admission, and received her acceptance letter before she tried her other choices.

“I’ve always wanted to go there,” she said. “They have a lot of choices, and they have a pre-optometry program, which is what I wanted.”

She received the Embark BSA Scholarship, and was an alternate for the Pogue Scholarship.

Another thing the girls have in common, they said, is the support of their families.

“Our parents make us work hard at all we do,” said Barbara. “My parents push me to give all I have in academics as well as in sports.”

“My parents are the same way,” added Poonam. “They always put school first.”

Barbara is the daughter of James and Patricia DeRatt, and Poonam is the daughter of Sudhir and Usha Patel.

As for the title of valedictorian, both Barbara and Poonam agree that the title is nice, but not something they ever really pushed, or felt pushed, to earn.

“At the end of last year, when they found out that I might get it, my parents really wanted it for me, but they never pushed it,” said Poonam.

“I’m honored to have this,” said Barbara, “but it doesn’t really feel different. It’s the icing on my high school career.”

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