HWS News
24 June 2026 Geneva High’s Top Two Choose Hobart and William Smith
Madeline Askin ’30 and Alexander Dorrington ’30 finished first and second in their Geneva High School class and chose Hobart and William Smith for the opportunity to pursue ambitious goals in academics, athletics and leadership.
Madeline “Maddie” Askin ’30 has a clear idea of what she’s going to do when she begins her first year at Hobart and William Smith in August. Her academic interests are in the sciences, and she’s excited about the construction of Fish Center for the Sciences. She plans to major in chemistry, she says, on the way to a career as a pharmaceutical research scientist or a pharmacist.
As far as athletics and extracurricular activities go, Askin was recruited to play for the William Smith lacrosse team. “I’m committed to playing lacrosse,” she says.
Alexander “Alex” Dorrington ’30 is approaching his first year with an openness to discovery, drawn to the wide range of academic and extracurricular opportunities at HWS and eager to explore where his interests may lead. A major? Maybe history. But he’s also thinking economics, or statistics. And he’s taken a couple of physics classes, too. What he really likes about HWS academics is that he doesn’t have to declare a major until his sophomore year.
His approach to athletics is similar. He’s playing center field on his high school baseball team this spring, but it’s only one of four sports he played this year. In his junior year, it was five – soccer, bowling, indoor track and outdoor track in addition to baseball.
Two members of the Class of 2030, two distinct and demonstrably different outlooks. The essence of the liberal arts.
But Askin and Dorrington also have something important in common. They graduated first and second in their class at Geneva High School and are coming to HWS with more than one scholarship.
Askin, named valedictorian, and Dorrington, named salutatorian, were each awarded HWS’ Trustee Scholarship, the top merit scholarship offered by the Colleges. And each will receive the Geneva Scholarship Associates award reserved for local applicants. In addition, Dorrington was given the Centennial Center Leadership Scholarship.
Askin, a goalie, is captain of the Geneva High lacrosse team, as well as the cross-country team. She’ll compete for a job in net for the Herons, who finished the 2026 season with an impressive 17-3 record and a trip to the NCAA tournament. Askin says she’s played lacrosse since she was in first grade and been a goalie since she and her peers began to play specific positions in fourth grade. She also teaches skiing at Bristol Mountain.
Askin is also the vice president of the Geneva High environmental club, known as the Green Club, and that’s the activity that affected her more than any other. Askin says she joined almost by chance – the club was recruiting members when she was in ninth grade, so she said okay. In a paper she wrote on the subject, she discusses how her participation has evolved into a meaningful part of her life.
“I went from a new member, to treasurer, and now to vice president and social media coordinator. Green Club … is something I have learned to love, and its ideals — environmental protection, minimal waste, and putting an end to fast fashion, among other things — have become ideals of my own.”
A central piece of Askin’s focus in her work with the Green Club is Seneca Lake, also an important focus of environmental education and activity at HWS. She says that, as a native of Geneva, “it has been vital for me to preserve Seneca Lake.” She participates in Green Club trash removal around the lake. “These lake cleanups have been a really important way for me to give back and protect the environment and community I have grown up in.”
Beyond the classroom and athletics, Dorrington works for his family’s business, the Geneva Antique Co-op, and is a member of the Geneva High Math Club. He took field trips to HWS when he was in sixth and ninth grade, and again last year. That was when he says he began to feel that HWS was “a good fit.”
Both will experience that firsthand when they arrive at their dorm rooms in just a few months.
