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Schools

Milford High 2012 Valedictorian: Almog Tabak

Meet Almog Tabak, the valedictorian for the Class of 2012.

Almog Tabak will begin his studies this fall as a math major at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, in its Commonwealth Honors College. He’s considering both engineering and computer science as possible areas of concentration. He has plenty of time to figure it out.

“I’m looking forward to really challenging classes, and meeting new people.” Tabak said.

The state university was a pragmatic choice for the valedictorian, who will lead his class in the

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“I’m not one of those people that believes you have to go to a certain place to get ahead," he said. "Education is what you make of it. Once you get a job, they only care about how you perform at that job, not where you went.”

The Commonwealth Honors College at UMass is not an easy place to get into. First-year students must have a 1300 combined SAT, a GPA of A- or higher, and be placed in the top 10 percent of their class.

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Tabak has had varied interests his whole life.

He has been playing the violin since third grade at Woodland. He is in the and is the president and co-producer for the high school's Theater Workshop. You may have seen him this past fall as Willy Wonka in their production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He has also been active for the past four years with Enter Stage Left Theater in Hopkinton. This past week, he read Logan's Address at Milford's

“We have a musical family," he said. "It may have even skipped me a little. My older brother is graduating from [New York University] this year, studying the piano, and my younger sister is a very talented musician. We moved here from Israel when I was seven and my dad used to own a flute repair shop there. There is always music around.”

It is this important part of Tabak's life — theater and music — that he will miss most of all.

“We have some great advisers with the Theater Workshop but it really is student run, so everybody gets close," he said. "We’re like a family. And you’ve spent years working together every fall and spring. Watching the seniors last year say goodbye was tough, but having to do that this year myself, it was emotional.”

Tabak is a member of the National Honor Society and the Tri-M Musical Honor Society, which requires a certain GPA and volunteer and ensemble duties. One of his senior highlights was helping with . This event is put on every year by the NHS, and senior citizens from Milford attend a prom arranged and decorated by the students.

“It was fun," he said. "One of my friend's grandmothers was teaching us the foxtrot, and we all got to dance with them."

Tabak also plays 1st singles on the tennis team. He said he expected people would be surprised to learn that he would chose tennis, over music, and would like to continue to play at UMass.

Tabak and his family visit Israel often and travel all over the U.S.

So, why did they settle in Milford? “I guess, why not. It has everything.”

Theater. Music. UMass: Why not Milford?

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