McARDLE

COVENTRY — David McArdle figured it was the smart thing to do: pursue a major in pharmacology and earn a degree that could net him a $90,000-a-year job upon graduation.

But since McArdle is Coventry High School’s valedictorian, and truly wise beyond his years, he already has a Plan B in mind, just in case.

That would be teaching physics, something he feels he could easily segue into at the University of Rhode Island, which he will attend this fall.

“That’s the tricky part. Right now I’m in the pharmacy program. [But] I like teaching. I’m pretty sure I’m going to transfer out. It’s just easier to switch out of it than to get in,” he said.

Pharmacology is a highly selective major, with the school choosing only 90 students out of the hundreds who apply every year. Most of the six-year program, McArdle says, is devoted to learning how drugs interact with each other.

McArdle said he is far more interested in how matter interacts. “Physics –– I enjoy it all, the whole topic. It explains why stuff happens. It explains the universe in a nutshell,” he said.

McArdle likes to tinker with mechanics –– applied physical mechanics and hydraulics and how machines work. He said he is fascinated by how inefficient internal-combustion engines are.

“They are horrible. So much is wasted in heat. I think only 20 percent of the energy from gasoline goes into powering the car. The other 80 percent is released as heat –– going into the atmosphere.”

So far, engineering is not on the Plan B list, but if McArdle were a car, he would “be a hybrid car, just for the environment. You have to be thinking about that these days. The color would be bright yellow,” he said.

For now, the valedictorian settles for a Pontiac Aztec to get around Coventry, where growing up under the guidance of parents who are educators helped foster a love for teaching.

His mother, Anne McArdle, teaches at Coventry High School and his father, Timothy McArdle, is in the Exeter-West Greenwich school system. And his older sister, Beth, 22, is already studying biology and secondary education at URI.

He said if anyone influenced him, it was Beth.

“She kind of set the tone. I saw how hard she worked and how successful she was. That was my example. That was my transformative experience, watching her as I was going through high school,” he said.

The road to valedictorian was not a chosen path, but it was one that seemed inevitable for McArdle. “It was just a bonus,” he said of being chosen. “I would just say working hard, I just tried my best. It just happened my best came out on top. I never thought about being valedictorian.”

“They told me I would be. They have been telling me since I was a freshman, but that’s not why I worked hard.”

The hard work came in the day-to-day grind and keeping pace with a grueling schedule that began when the birds started chirping, and ended at dark.

In addition to academics, his days were filled with varsity sports.

“In the fall I play soccer. In the winter I run indoor track. In the spring, volleyball is the sport. It’s so exciting, a lot people don’t know how fast-paced it is. It’s like beach volley ball in your backyard,” he said. “I would go from school to practice and … get out at 6 p.m. and then I would do my homework. I got to be pretty efficient at it. I had to stay on top on it. I just went with the flow.”

McArdle also managed to squeeze in a few concerts in that hectic schedule, especially by his favorite, The Dave Matthews Band.

lsparks@projo.com