Eleanor Woodruff, a student at Weehawken High School, was awarded the eighth grade achievement award at the Weehawken High School awards dinner last month. The event, which was held at the Sheraton Hotel, honored students in the middle school/high school for academic excellence.
The achievement award is the highest honor a student can receive. Eleanor, or as her friends like to call her, Ellie, has won the award two years in a row.
But recognition of her academic excellence didn’t start in high school. She has won numerous awards in previous school years, including top student at Theodore Roosevelt School in the sixth grade. That same year, Ellie won second place at an Elks Lodge essay contest about drug awareness.
Her mother, Marjorie Woodruff, credits an excellent school curriculum for her daughter’s success. “Ellie is a great reflection on the school,” she said.
Weehawken High School has been steadily moving up the ranks of top schools. The school, which currently ranks 29 among New Jersey schools and 714 nationwide according to U.S. News & World Report’s Best High Schools, consistently produces top students. Woodruff is just one student among many who are able to shine because of the schools program.
Outside of school, Ellie is extremely active in her community. She won the community service medal last fall and is always looking to get involved in new things.
She is a fan of superheroes and of finding new, interesting vocabulary words in the dictionary. She writes on a fan website called fanfiction.com.
Ellie will attend High Tech High School in North Bergen this coming year so she can pursue courses in science and technology.
Ellie was in the chorus of her high school production of “Anything Goes” and plays tennis in the junior league of the Binghamton Racquet Club in Edgewater.
A member of the peer leadership group in school, she has logged many hours of volunteering, serving nutritious meals to the elderly in Weehawken, often with fellow Girls Scouts. She’s been a member for eight years and is a Girl Scout Cadette.
Marjorie Woodruff works in a nursing home and said that Ellie often makes cards for the residents.
An only child, Ellie has good friends and two cats.
“She likes hanging out with adults,” Woodruff said. “She defines herself as an iconoclast.”
Gilbert Aguon may be reached at gil@hudsonreporter.com