DANVERS — Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School has three graduating seniors headed to Ivy League universities next fall, two of whom are from Lynn. Nathan Hammerschmitt Le Gal is set to attend Dartmouth College while Thomas Politano is going to Brown University.
The two Breed Middle School alums took different paths before finding their ways to the Ivies.
Hammerschmitt Le Gal knew early on that he wanted to attend Dartmouth, so he applied through the early-decision process.
“It’s something that I really had to build momentum on, starting my freshman, sophomore year[s], because I did involve myself in different activities and sports, and then continued that arc all the way into senior year when everything wrapped up together,” Hammerschmitt Le Gal said.
Politano was unsure for a while where he wanted to go to college, he just knew that he wanted to go to “someplace good.”
“I really had struggled to figure out what I wanted to do and then especially where I wanted to go,” Politano said. “I started writing a lot and I ended up writing a screenplay.”
Thanks to a mentor at school, he said he started looking toward the writing track. Writing, English literature, and poetry are things he has always loved.
“When I was younger, I wanted to be a music student and I liked how at the conservatories, you didn’t have to take all the math classes and the general-education courses,” Politano said. “So then I found Brown, and it’s the open curriculum and you can sort of take whatever you want.”
Studying English and economics at Brown is what interests him right now.
Hammerschmitt Le Gal is headed toward scientific research, which is something he said the natural and environmental sciences program at Essex Tech prepared him for.
“The biggest takeaway there, I would say, is because we’re doing hands-on work and a lot of research-based work, we’re going out in the field, we’re collecting data, we’re bringing it back, and we’re drawing real-world conclusions from that data and from that work, and that really gave me a sense of the research process,” Hammerschmitt Le Gal said.
The program also led him to appreciate the outdoors.
“I really enjoyed that process of learning about the mechanisms that drive the world and the underlying biology,” Hammerschmitt Le Gal said.
“Outdoor culture” at Dartmouth is a big part of campus life, which he said is important to him. Hammerschmitt Le Gal spends a lot of time outdoors, not just for school but also for running, which he said he does a lot of in Lynn Woods.
Politano studied landscape and turf management at Essex Tech. Although he will be taking a different route in college, he said his studies still gave him an appreciation for gardening and landscaping.
Both students agreed that Essex Tech prepared them for their lives’ next phases.
“Because people come from all over the North Shore, it really does feel like a college,” Hammerschmitt Le Gal said. “I think it’s advancing your sense of place because people are coming from all different towns, so you’re not limited to the one town where you grow up.”
