Naomi Klinghoffer will soon be departing her Mercer Island home for Israel during a gap year to study in a Jewish learning program.

For the last four years, she has been fully engaged in the world of Northwest Yeshiva High School (NYHS) and was selected as the valedictorian of her 2021 class, which completed its high school journey at its June 13 graduation ceremony.

On her selection as valedictorian, Klinghoffer said, “It’s a great honor. It’s so great to know all my hard work paid off.”

A few days before the ceremony, Klinghoffer admitted that she was nervous about delivering her speech, which wasn’t yet fully solidified in her mind. She did note that the speech would most likely follow along these lines: “We’ve been working together for these past four years. Seeing each other grow has been really great, and as we all leave each other, we’ll keep in touch and have a great time wherever life brings you.”

Her fellow graduates are Shoshana Behar, Nina Greisman, Sam Holland, Avi Kintzer, Rifka Krulewitch and Lulu Maimon, and most of those students will be joining her in Israel in the program that will feature classes taught in Hebrew.

“I don’t currently speak Hebrew, so hopefully I’ll be forced into immersing myself into it and learning the language, which I’m very excited about. I definitely want to come out of the year being fluent,” said Klinghoffer, who enjoyed her Judaic, math, United States history and art classes this year.

Klinghoffer said that NYHS students attended full weeks of classes in person at times, and on some weeks they utilized a hybrid schedule.

“I think it went really well given the circumstances, of course. I think our school did a great job quickly accommodating to everyone’s health concerns, and it made it feel almost like a normal year,” she said.

When discussing her life philosophy, Klinghoffer noted that she enjoys herself and makes sure that those around her are in high spirits as well. Over the years, the best advice she’s been given by others is to not spend time worrying about things.

“What’s going to happen is what’s going to happen and you don’t always have the power to change that. You might as well enjoy yourself,” she said.

Looking into a proverbial crystal ball five to 10 years down the road, Klinghoffer said her dream job would be in the nursing field at a children’s hospital.

“I think it just has a lot of elements that I really enjoy. I enjoy working with people, and I also love working with kids, so I would be a pediatric nurse. I’m also very interested in medicine. It kind of brings those together into a nice little package,” she said.