Thornton Academy announces valedictorian and summa cum laude seniors

Lily Bassett of Saco has been named valedictorian for the Thornton Academy Class of 2026, and one of 56 seniors who will graduate summa cum laude from the Saco school on Sunday, June 7.

Bassett, who plans to study materials engineering at Cornell University, earned a grade point average of 4.23 at Thornton. A National Honor Society member, Bassett is captain of girls' varsity soccer and tennis teams, and participates in the Chinese Club and Community Leaders Club. Last summer, she studied in Taiwan on a National Security Language Initiative for Youth scholarship.

“Lily Bassett isn’t just an astonishingly brilliant and supremely hard-working and organized young woman,” said Matt Amoroso, a science teacher at Thornton. “She is generous in the extreme with her knowledge, time, and energy.  She spent as much of her time in my classes sharing her understanding to the other students as she did absorbing new information.  She’s a bright light, and a good soul, and a kind spirit.  I’m very, very proud to have been a small part of her journey to whatever amazing places she is going.”

Thornton Academy’s Class of 2026 students graduating summa cum laude, with a grade point average of 4.0 or better:

Cameron Abbe

Cecilia Acquistapace

Lily Bassett

Coralyn Bolduc

Adelaide Bracy

Adeline Burman

Yunjia Chase

Anna Cook

Addyson Cyr

Leyla Damirchiyeva

Junjie Deng

Lana Dukhey

Beck Edgerly

Emma Eukitis

Sophia Farago Dumsch

Erik Frye

Julia Gilbert

Alden Gilg

Mikayla Goulet

Sei Harada

Lily Harris

Miley Hawkins

Rachel Hubacz

Kayden Kim

Isabelle Knox

Taylor Laflamme

Xi Lei

Anika Manning

Jacklyn Milligan

Davide Morelli

Lien Nguyen

Harlow O'Leary

Lillian Paige

Bao Gia Pham

Adriana Pimenta

Nicholas Poulin

Addyson Purcell

Kristina Rakovic

David Rocha

Samuel Rondeau

Lilia Root

Jacqueline Scully

Marta Semino

Olivia Sirois

Albert Slanar

Harper Stoddard

Colby Sughrue

Leah Thibeault

Benjamin Townsend

Thoai Tran

Alberto Tranchino

Caroline van Haeften

Rowan Wheeler

Yihang (Leo) Ying

Ava Zafirson

Zihan (Sally) Zhou