She’s creative, determined, and family-oriented. She’s also the 2015 Salutatorian. She’s Megan Effinger.

“It’s made me appreciate the opportunities I have at PR,” Megan says of her title. Megan certainly did take advantage of those opportunities, participating in marching band, jazz band, madrigals, German club and German NHS, set building, plays, math team, scholastic bowl, and pep band.

AP Computer Science and AP U.S. History were her favorite classes.

On the side, Megan loves music, especially playing the piano and the saxophone and singing. You can find her doing arts and crafts projects or running, two activities she says she enjoys during her free time.

Megan’s secret to success was to “always try to best myself.” “I’m very competitive,” she explains. It’s no wonder she made it so far.

The most challenging part of becoming salutatorian, Megan says, was the “lack of sleep.” However, Megan never shied away from activities because she thought she couldn’t do them. “Don’t not do something because you think you don’t have time,” Megan advises. “As you get older, you realize you can make time for everything you want to do.”

Next year, Megan will attend the University of Minnesota at Duluth, aiming to become a software engineer. As for her career, Megan says, “I’m constantly changing my mind because it’s hard to pick something I’m going to do for the rest of my life.”