Senior Week 2010: Thierman Emerges as a Leader

Editor's note: Welcome to Day 7 of Senior Week 2010. The Caldwells Patch began an eight-day series on Monday, featuring graduating seniors from James Caldwell High School, West Essex Regional High School and Mount St. Dominic as they reflect on their high school careers and prepare for the next step in their lives. 

Today, learn more about West Essex Salutatorian Owen Gantz and here's a look at Valedictorian Andrew Thierman:

Things like bimolecular engineering always came easy for West Essex Regional High School Class of 2010 Valedictorian Andrew Thierman.

It was overcoming his timid personality that posed the most difficulty.

"The biggest challenge was probably coming out of my shell and making friends," said Thierman, who will attend Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in the fall. "I was shy when I came into high school as a freshman. I got the grades, but I didn't have any friends and I was kind of unhappy."

The catalyst that brought Thierman out of his shell? The marching band. He joined his freshman year as a saxophonist and later made the unusual woodwind to brass switch and played the mellophone.

"I joined the marching band and the people there really brought me out of my shell," he said. "And I was happier and I had a lot of friends."

Born and raised in Roseland, Thierman is the younger of two children. His sister Rebecca, 21, attends Rutgers. His mother, Jill Stein, lives in Roseland, while his father, David Thierman, resides in Clifton.

Growing up, Thierman loved "Star Wars" and building models, particularly with Legos.

In addition to the marching band, he was also a member of the high school's fencing team, participated in the science Olympiad and was a member of Future Business Leaders of America.

His favorite classes at school were science and chemistry He was inspired by teacher Jeffrey Boyd to love history also.

English, on the other hand, was his least favorite subject.

"I had to force myself to do it," he said, "because I didn't like it very much."

While he already excelled in every subject, he learned an interesting lesson during his four years at West Essex. The more friends he had and the more activities he took on, the better he did academically.

"If you be who you are then you can accomplish what you want to," he said. "That was a cumulative lesson that built up to my senior year."

He's considered discussing this lesson when he delivers the valedictorian speech at Sunday's commencement ceremony at 5 p.m.

"I'm not really nervous about the speech," he said. "But it's not the most exciting thing I've ever done."

As he reflects on the past four years, he feels one of the greatest challenges he and his peers faced was dealing with yearly administrative changes in the district, plus several school lockdowns—including one this year—and a handful of bomb threats when he was an underclassman.

But he believes the high school has prepared him well for Johns Hopkins University, where he plans to major in chemistry and bimolecular engineering.

He's spent a considerable amount of time so far doing research, as well as working with oil, synthetics and plastics. He said he'd like to continue that work, with an eye toward making those things more efficient and better for the environment. His ultimate goal, he said, is to be an engineer.

"So I can help people's lives by inventing things or building things to make their lives better," he said.

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