By Dave Hill<br><a href="mailto:hilld@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Dave</a>
The Tonawanda News
June 26, 2008 11:27 pm
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The top two students this year at Tonawanda High School share more in common than outstanding grades and friendship.
Bucking the trend of valedictorians and salutatorians going to college for the sciences, these Tonawanda students are both deeply devoted to the fine arts.
Sean Polen is this year’s valedictorian while Melissa Bender is the salutatorian. Polen auditioned and was accepted into an exclusive musical theater program at the University at Buffalo. Bender will be going to college for musical education.
Friends since the ninth grade, the two have enjoyed a neck-and-neck battle for the valedictorian and salutatorian positions. Their final averages were within two-tenths of a percentage point. “Ever since freshman year, we’ve been going back and forth,” Bender said.
Polen has performed in more than 30 theatrical productions since the eighth grade. His most notable role was the beast in “Beauty and the Beast,” performed in 2006 at Mount St. Mary’s Academy.
“It was one of the most fantastic experiences I’ve had,” Polen said. “It was the first lead role where I could belt the score rather than sing it in lead voice. And I like to belt.”
Polen’s theater work instilled in him critical organizational skills. “It definitely taught me to be more organized,” he said. “At any given point, I was doing three or four shows at once.”
While his ultimate goal is to be a performer, Polen said he would enjoy teaching theater at some point, a feeling that stems from the opportunity he had during his junior year to direct the high school’s spring show. “Just sharing what knowledge I had, I loved doing that,” he said.
While most valedictorians dabble in a wide variety of clubs and activities, Polen spent the majority of his time in high school focusing on theater. “I was slightly a one-trick pony,” he said.
A member of the jazz ensemble since 2004, Bender was also secretary of the Band Council and performed with the Sugar and Jazz band based in North Tonawanda.
Bender got to direct her peers recently in the spring concert. “That was really a big thing for me. I realized that that’s what I want to do.” As a result, Bender will be attending Buffalo State College to major in musical education and minor in Spanish.
She performed in five musicals at Tonawanda, two on stage and three in the pit. Tonawanda’s production of “42nd Street” during her junior year was a particularly important one.
“I had to teach myself to play sting bass for that. Once I taught myself that, I realized that’s what I wanted to go to college for,” she said of string bass. “That started everything. That was a big deal to teach myself and get to see how it would be if I continued on.”
Contact reporter David J. Hill at 693-1000, ext. 115.
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