Mount St. Mary announces valedictorian and salutatorian for 2022

KENMORE — Mount St. Mary Academy is pleased to announce that Davoren Walsh has been named valedictorian and Sophia Young has been named salutatorian for the Class of 2022.

Davoren has a current grade point average of 100.3 percent. She has applied and been accepted to a variety of highly competitive colleges and universities, including Boston University, DePaul University, Loyola University of Chicago and SUNY Binghamton, with the hope of one day becoming a physician. 

Davoren has challenged herself with taking five Advanced Placement and two college dual enrollment courses. She received the AP Scholar Award in 2021 and was honored with the prestigious Mount St. Mary Academy Presidential Scholarship for her four years of high school based on her ongoing commitment to academic excellence. She is also the recipient of the University of Rochester George Eastman Young Leaders Award.

Davoren is a prominent leader in the Mount St. Mary Academy school community through her participation in National Honor Society, the Student Athlete Committee, Connect Life Blood Donation Club, Yearbook and Serve Club. She is also a four-year member of the Academy Scholars program, the innovative entrepreneurship program at MSM. As a senior, she served as the executive of finance in the “Fly by Fashion” Virtual Enterprise business. She was an integral part of its Fashion Show Committee, which brought local vendors together to create a live fashion show. Davoren received acclaim as the second-place finisher in the Northeast Virtual Enterprise Regional Business Plan Competition Presenter. 

Beyond the classroom and her club involvement, Davoren has received accolades as an athlete that include Varsity Volleyball Most Valuable Player (2021) and Volleyball First Team All-Catholic (2021). Davoren has represented the Mount St. Mary Thunder volleyball team all four years and plays outside of school for the Niagara Frontier Volleyball Club. As a captain for the Thunder in 2021, she earned All Western New York Scholar Athlete Honorable Mention.

Davoren attended St. Christopher School in Tonawanda where she and her family are parishioners. She is the daughter of Kevin and Jennifer George Walsh, a 1993 grad of MSM. 

Sophia has achieved an average of 100.24 percent since freshman year. She has applied and been accepted to top schools, including Bucknell University, the University of Pittsburgh, Rochester Institute of Technology and SUNY Binghamton University. She is considering a major in Marketing. 

She is a recipient of the Mount St. Mary Academy Presidential Scholarship, Orchestra Scholarship (violin), the Rochester Institute of Technology Computing Medal (2020), a member of the National Honor Society, and a four-year first-honors student. Sophia is involved in many school co-curricular activities including: Yearbook, Serve Club, the Student Athlete Committee, Orchestra Club, and Student Council. She has taken five AP courses and two college dual enrollment courses. 

Sophia is also part of MSM’s Academy Scholars entrepreneurship program, where she is an executive of the Junior Virtual Enterprise program. Her hard work with the group has led to a second-place finish for “Fly by Fashion” at the Northeast Virtual Enterprise Regional Business Plan Competition and Regional Finalist at the Virtual Enterprises International Marketing Competition. Sophia and the marketing team recently competed as national finalists during the Virtual Enterprises International Marketing Competition in New York City.

In addition to her academic accomplishments, Sophia was a member of the volleyball and softball team all four years at MSM, and indoor track grades 9-11. She was First Team All Catholics and named Most Valuable Player for softball her junior year. She was also recently named captain of the softball team. In the fall of 2021, Sophia was named WIVB-TV News4’s Scholar Athlete of the Month. Outside of MSM she has been working at urgent care since her sophomore year.

Sophia, a current Williamsville resident and the daughter of Patrick and Rachel Young, graduated from St. Peter and Paul School in Williamsville. Sophia’s sister, Grace, is a 2019 Mount St. Mary Academy graduate.