Fredonia Rotary Students of the Month are Elizabeth Sawka and Katelyn Ludemann.
Elizabeth Sawka is the daughter of Rosemarie and the late Vincent Sawka. She is currently a senior at Fredonia High School, and has taken a variety of Advanced and AP courses at the high school. In her junior year, she completed AP U.S. History, and this year is taking AP Psychology. Sawka is currently enrolled in the 3-1-3 Program at SUNY Fredonia. The first semester, she took English Composition and Macroeconomics. For the second semester, she will complete Novels and Tales and American Politics. In June, she will graduate with an Advanced Regents Diploma with Honors.
For six years, Sawka ran cross country at Fredonia, earning the JV Coach's Award in her freshman and senior years. She has been on the high school newspaper, The Spectator, for three years and she is now a managing editor. Each year of high school she has participated as a member of the hair and makeup crew for the school play and musical.
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Elizabeth Sawka
In her free time, she enjoys reading, writing, running and doing yoga. She has enjoyed her senior year, and is excited to move on to college. Sawka has been accepted to Canisius College and Niagara University, but she has not made her final decision. At one of these colleges, she will major in English and minor in either editing or creative writing. After college, Elizabeth plans on editing for a book publishing company, and would love to move to Washington, D.C., to pursue her career.
Katelyn Ludemann is the daughter of David and Kathy Ludemann. Her father is a fire fighter and a paramedic for the village of Fredonia. Her mother is the full-time clerk to the assessor for the town of Pomfret. Ludemann is a senior at Fredonia High School and will graduate in June in the top 15 percent of her class with an Advanced Regents Diploma with Honors. She looks forward to the rest of her senior year and continuing on with her education. Ludemann is currently enrolled in three AP classes (statistics, English, and psychology). In addition, she has taken AP U.S. History, three years of advanced English, and JCC Spanish.
In the past, Ludemann was a figure skater, dancer, gymnast and a cheerleader. In addition, she used to play NCCSA soccer and Little League softball. Last year, she was a member of the high school girls swim team at Fredonia. Currently, she plays sports outside of school, for fun. She golfs and swims, and occasionally plays basketball.
Ludemann has been very involved with music her entire life. From the time she was very little she has been singing and dancing. In fifth grade, she began playing flute and continued for four more years. Ludemann has always been a member of the school's chorus and is a part of the Madrigal Singers. In addition, she is a part of the Chautauqua Children's Chorale (CCC), which she joined in fourth grade and has been very dedicated for the entire nine years since. She has recently taken up piano and, after two years of lessons, loves it. She is teaching herself to play guitar. In addition, she is in this year's musical at the school, Fiddler on the Roof.
During all four years of high school, Ludemann has been a member of the Spanish club. However, last year they changed the name to Foreign Language Club, and included French students as well, due to a decrease in membership. Sophomore year she was the secretary/treasurer and the president, due to such a small interest in the group. Junior year and this year, being the foreign language club now, it was asked to have a president to represent the Spanish side and one to represent the French side, and she was elected co-president, from the Spanish side. She has also been a member of the school's Key Club.
Outside of school, Ludemann goes to church regularly and belongs to the youth group there. They do volunteer work regularly and recently took a mission trip to South Dakota to help a Native American community and experience their culture. In addition, they went sightseeing while they were out there and were able to see many famous places, such as Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial. During church, she teaches young children about God in the children's ministry program that is run by the pastor's wife. Other volunteer work that she does outside of school is helping her grandfather deliver meals to people who are shut-ins for Meals on Wheels.
One of her passions in life is to travel. As a member of the CCC, she has been to Oahu, Hawaii and Nashville, Tenn., to take part in singing festivals. This summer Ludemann will be traveling with the group to Chicago to be a part of yet another big singing festival. In April, she will travel to Boston with the FHS Chamber Choir to compete in a singing competition. In addition to this, she travels and spends time with her family, including taking a bi-annual trip to Walt Disney World, which she deeply enjoys.
Next year, Ludemann plans on going to Jamestown Community College on the U.S.A scholarship. She then plans to transfer to Fredonia State where she would like to go into education with an early childhood-childhood double major, providing her with certification for birth through sixth grade. She also plans to minor in Spanish and get her masters in speech pathology.
