Donnelly

FOSTER — The University of Chicago is the next stop for Cecilia Donnelly, valedictorian of Ponaganset High School.

What drew her toward the Windy City? “It’s a really good school in general,” she said. “I wanted to live in a city.”

And her major?

“I’m undecided,” Donnelly said, adding that the school’s curriculum approach was a help. “It is designed so you go in undecided, because their core curriculum is really strong the first two years. I can try different classes and that will help me decide.”

She said the school offers “a lot of help with what you want to do in life.”

And what does she want to do in life?

She’s keeping that option open. “I don’t know yet,” she said. “I tell people I like going to school, learning about new things. I like science more than English, but I like science and English, so it’s hard for me to narrow it down. That’s why I wanted go to the University of Chicago, because it’s all about learning for learning’s sake. I want to learn more before I decide what to do with my life.”

At Ponaganset she was a member of the cross-country team.

“We had the New England cross-country championships last year, because we have a really good course. The day before the event the students came and stayed overnight. I gave tours. It was really fun, with all these runners from all over New England. I was really happy we were able to host that.”

Donnelly said she was one of the leaders of the student recycling club. She and fellow students arranged to place green recycling bins in classrooms for paper, which they picked up weekly. “It then got picked up by Sort Our Recycling Today, part of the Ark of the Blackstone, an organization that employs mentally handicapped people.”

When she started at Ponaganset, Donnelly said, she was interested in music. She spent her first two years in bands, playing French horn, which she has since given up.

In her spare time she reads.

“Fiction. Magazines — Atlantic Monthly, Harpers.” She is currently reading a book called “How to grow fresh air.”

Donnelly said she learned of the book through her environmental science teacher, who mentioned it “because a lot of schools don’t know about indoor air pollution.”

She said the book lists about 50 types of house plants that will purify the atmosphere at home or at the office.

“We have rubber tree at home, and that works at an eight out of ten, because it removes chemical vapors and is easy to grow. It resists insects and has a high transpiration rate.”

Given her interest in plants, she has picked a good summer job.

“I’m working at a Wagon Road Greenhouse just a few miles from my house in Killingly,” she said.

tmorgan@projo.com