Natalie Nevins and Brett Zeligson
WEST ORANGE, NJ — West Orange High School seniors Didi Mesfin and Brett Zeligson have received recognition as the school’s top scholar-athletes for 2020 by the Essex County Athletic Directors Association and Natalie Nevins has been named a New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association scholar-athlete.
This is the 43rd year that the association has recognized the top male and female senior athletes in schools across Essex County for not only their athletic talents but their outstanding performance in academics.
Each year, every member school of the NJSIAA selects a senior who plays an NJSIAA varsity sport, possesses a cumulative grade-point average of no less than 3.0, and exhibits outstanding school and community citizenship to be honored as a scholar-athlete. Nevins will also receive a financial scholarship.
Nevins is a record-breaking soccer player and co-captain of the girls soccer team. She is in the top 5 percent of her class and is a member of the National, English and Science Honor societies. She is a Mountaineer Mentor, a member of Teen Pep and leads her team at the Daughters of Israel program. She will be attending St. Joseph’s University, where she will major in journalism and play soccer.
Mesfin has been a four-year member of the girls swim team and is also a captain. She is involved in fine arts programs at the high school and will be attending Duke University.
Zeligson was named the 2020 salutatorian, and is co-president of the Student Council, captain of the boys varsity swim team, president of the Tri-M Music Honor Society and vice president of SkillsUSA. He is a Mountaineer Mentor and a member of the Science Olympiad and Math teams. He writes for Cobblestone, the high school’s literary magazine, and, in addition to Tri-M, is a member of six other honor societies: Math, Science, Escriptus, Chinese, Social Studies and National. Zeligson is also a member of the Nikhil Badlani Foundation Youth Advisory Board. He will major in civil engineering at Princeton University.
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