Zarela Fortuna Gulli (Photo provided)

KEENE — In Keene Central School’s class of 2025, Zarela Fortuna Gulli has been named valedictorian, and Henry Becker is the salutatorian.

Both have long lists of clubs and accolades to their name, which they credit to the small community at Keene Central School and the opportunities they’ve had to be involved in a diverse array of activities.

“In such a small school, you kind of do have to be a part of everything,” Gulli said.

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Valedictorian

Henry Becker (Photo provided)

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Zarela Fortuna Gulli, 18, has inherited a love of the outdoors. She has lived in the same house in Keene her whole life. Her parents, Tammy Loewy and Nick Gully, moved to the area from Albany a few years before she was born, in part to enjoy the outdoors.

This love has translated to many opportunities for climate advocacy. Gulli remembers first hearing about climate change in fourth grade. Initially, the idea didn’t bother her much — she thought the idea of less winter sounded nice.

However, she soon realized the urgency of the issue. She participated in the ClimaTeens Fellowship at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake — one of her proudest and most formative experiences. The Wild Center programs opened many more doors to her, from lobbying in Albany to attending and presenting at workshops. She got involved with the statewide Climate Resilience and Education Task Force, where she said she was one of the few students from outside New York City.

“(I’m) feeling like I’m currently making an impact, not just like I’m waiting until I’m in college and can do research internships, which was really cool,” she said.

In addition to her activism and climate leadership, Gulli has been captain of the varsity soccer team as well as the varsity Nordic team. She has also competed on the Lake Placid track team. She’s been involved with a number of clubs, including Student Council, Green Team, Science Olympiad and Envirothon.

Gulli will be graduating with a GPA of 97.69, and plans to attend Columbia University in New York City. She said the university has a strong program, the Columbia Climate School, that aims to address broad issues related to climate.

“This is the most important issue to me, because without our world and without our climate we can’t solve any of the other issues,” she said. “It’s always like, looming in the future.”

She isn’t exactly sure where the future will lead, but she wants to explore options from climate research to politics or law.

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Salutatorian

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Henry Becker, 18, moved to Keene with his family when he was in second grade. His parents, Leslie and Chris Becker, moved from Arlington, Virginia, close to Washington, D.C. His mom grew up in the area, and was familiar with the region.

Growing up in this area has fostered a love of the outdoors and sports.

“I try to spend a lot of time outside as much as I can,” he said. “Where I live, it’s hard not to.”

Becker’s high school sports career has included soccer, which he played all four years, as well as tennis. This spring, finished the regular tennis season with an undefeated record and qualified for the state championships after a third-place finish at the Section VII tournament.

He has also competed in Nordic skiing for three years during high school. This past year, he switched things up and tried his hand at basketball. The experience of constantly striving and looking forward to future seasons has sometimes yielded disappointments, but also an important lesson.

“Take nothing for granted,” he said. “Nothing’s a given.”

Becker is grateful for the support provided by the small school and the one-on-one work with teachers, which has helped him balance extra-curricular activities and academics … and excel in both. This combined accomplishment is what he’s most proud of in his high school years.

“I’ve been playing a sport for every season of my high school career, and I’ve also been able to get pretty good grades,” he said.

His club involvement has included serving as treasurer for both the Varsity Club and the Green Team. Becker will be graduating with a GPA of 94.98 and will be attending the University of New Hampshire in the fall.

In college, Becker hopes to study some type of engineering, possibly civil engineering. He’ll have time to explore the different directions this area of study might take him, and he’ll have time for more soccer and tennis.