After having a challenging year with COVID, Tony Giech had some difficulties adjusting back into school but overcame those challenges. As the captain of the swim team and an accomplished student, Giech is an exemplary Malden High School student.
Giech will be attending Northeastern University next year and plans to major in computer science.
Giech was glad to be back in school after spending a big portion of high school online. He liked coming back and being able to see everyone and being able to go to class with his friends.
“You don’t really know how much you’ve missed out until it gets taken away from you,” he said. Although his senior year was a little stressful because of the college applications he still had fun and it was exciting. Giech also had a lot of fun with his last swim season because it was good to end his four-year swimming career at MHS. “There have obviously been ups and downs, but it’s been fun.”
“I came into high school thinking it was going to be like High School Musical,” Giech said. Even though it was different, freshman year was still fun for him since it was a new experience and he met new people.
Giech overcame the difficulties of school during COVID by continuing to do what he was interested in. For example he pursued computer science and found new hobbies like running.
The college application process was stressful for Giech because there was always that fear of rejection. Giech found it difficult to display himself to the schools he was applying to since he had to fit it all on a couple of pages. “It’s a very concise and shortened manner that can be difficult and stressful because sometimes you don’t even know where to start,” Giech said. Even with the stress, he thinks it was a good learning experience because “it forces you to analyze yourself.”
One of the biggest things Giech is looking forward to in college will be meeting new people and the new experience. “It’s a great opportunity to learn from [other people’s] experiences and see how it is different from mine. What can I learn from that? And what can I take from that? And how can that affect my life? And how can I affect their life?”
James Valente has known Giech since his freshman year but only had him as a student this year for the Maldonian Yearbook. Valente thought it was great to have Giech in the class.
“One of the things I can say about Tony is that he is the consummate high school student: he’s athletic, he’s personable, he’s academic, and he’s community organized. He really gets it,” Valente said. This was one of the things Valente loved about Giech when he first met him freshman year. He liked that he always put his best foot forward and that he never held back.
Valente believes that something that stands out about Giech is his integrity and his humility. “He’s always saying ‘I could have done better. And next time, I’m going to do better.’ And I think that’s important for everyone,” Valente said. He loves that Giech is working every day to make himself a better person.
Tony Giech, the Class of 2022 Art Coordinator, expressed that having been able to be a part of the student council for the past three years allowed him to recognize “how to work with a lot of different people and how to communicate.”
He explained that since the student council is diverse, there are many different work styles and mindsets, but ultimately he was able to cultivate impactful experiences. “Trying to figure out how to balance all of that and communicate that we can all do our best and help each other shine in our own different ways… was what I learned the best,” said Giech.
Giech mentioned how he first ran for the position in sophomore year due to his peers from the Class of 2021 talking about how the Class of 2022 should get their advisor soon because of fundraising purposes. As a result, it made him realize that the class was behind which got him motivated to run for the position. “I wanted to see if I can make a difference and impact with my efforts in any way possible,” he said. In addition, Giech enjoys art as he has “always loved drawing and sketching,” so he felt that he could put his hobby to use.
As the Art Coordinator, Giech expressed that there weren’t necessarily challenges associated with his position, but rather what the student council faced as a group. He explained that COVID was a difficult year that they tackled as they lost fundraising. Despite it being a stressful time, he expressed that they eventually overcame the restrictions, and figured out a way to work around it. “I believe that we were very successful in that… I’m really proud of everything that my peers have done,” Giech said.
From these experiences, “we were able to find out our commonalities and our shared interests,” he explained. Giech emphasized how everyone is open and understanding because you don’t feel as if you are going to be criticized which contributed towards creating a stronger bond.
He noted how a specific memorable experience was Junior Varieties when after the show was over, the student council and the performers had cake and decided to smear cake on Class of 2022 advisor Dan Jurkowski’s face. Aside from this humorous moment, Giech expressed that overall it was fun to see everyone come together as it was a stressful time preparing for the show. “It was really great to see us work through that and overcome all those obstacles to put on that show… And see everybody again after being away for so long for COVID,” Giech stated.
As Giech’s high school career is coming to an end, he mentioned how he has “grown so used to always having something come up.” Despite that, he is grateful for Jurkowski especially for all “we have put him through.” Giech is ultimately grateful for him to have done this and will “miss those moments with Dan and everyone else” as they come to an end.
