Valedictorian, Salutatorians Named

Paving the Road Ahead

By: Adrianna Hanzak

Four years with their noses in the books to make up high school, three years of turning in their class projects in middle school, six more years of paper mache and alphabet people in elementary and plenty of hard work in between. The average high school student in the United States has completed a minimum of thirteen years of education by the time they graduate from high school. The class of 2017 has achieved many useful commodities over their thirteen years, however three women, with their hard work and determination, excelled in their academics over theirs.

With her loving parents stressing the importance of school, Natalie Green has no doubt made them proud with her 4.625 GPA and adopting the name of valedictorian. Over the years of growing up with the knowledge of the importance of school, Natalie never felt the pressure of doing well but none the less acquired the skills needed to accel in her grades. However, in her freshman year, Natalie had decided she was going to strive to become the class of 2017’s valedictorian. Along the path of study breaks and lectures, she discovered she leaned more towards calculus and more away from English in her studies. With her high school career quickly coming to a close, Natalie has paved the path ahead of her, planning to attend Brigham Young University in the following fall of her graduation, and intends to serve an eighteen month mission for her church in close to a year. With her studies aside, Natalie dedicates her time to a variety of events, including cross country, reading, spending time with friends, and dancing interpretively.

With a GPA of 4.561, Arianna Farnsworth earns the title of one of the salutatorians of the class of 2017. Although she stresses the fact that her grades aren't much higher than everyone else's, she gives great advice for her underclassmen peers. “Care about your grades,” she says, “getting an A as a freshman in Unified Social Studies is just as important as getting an A as a junior in AP Calculus, but don't stress yourself out to the point that you ignore the things you genuinely love to do. Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted.” While maintaining a high grade point average is a great deal to many students, Arianna seems to have the system down to a science. She explained that being named a salutatorian hasn't affected her life all that greatly saying that her grades would be the same regardless of how many people were higher lower. She also explained that it wasn’t that big of a deal to her family due to her older brother being the valedictorian of his class. While she avoids seeing her grades as one of the high points of her class, she plans on furthering her education, majoring in biochemistry during undergrad and then plans on going to graduate school to become a dentist.

With Natalie’s and Arianna’s hard work paying off, Hannah McKillen doesn’t stray far behind, achieving a 4.560 GPA in her studies. While playing soccer, participating in Key Club, and co-founding the interpretive dance team, Hannah had a pretty good idea that she was going to graduate near the top of her class. She elaborated on this saying that she hated when she got questions wrong and got upset when she received a B as a grade, which helped her push herself to earn higher grades. With all the tears she shed over calculus, she feels that being named salutatorian real helps it pay off, making the time she spent studying and reading seem worth it. Being named salutatorian also affects her supporting family, making them feel proud and show excitement for her future as well. With her family being supportive, Hannah’s mother and father play a big role in influencing her life, as she looked up to her father and envied his intelligence as a scientist and her mother believing in her dream of becoming a doctor. Hannah plans on following her dream to the Ohio State University to study biology and eventually advance to medical school to become a cardiologist.

Behind the study breaks, AP tests, and the school essays, Madison High School proves to have students of great intelligence who push themselves to accel in their classwork. With the 2016-2017 school year coming near an end, the juniors are provided with three intelligent, hard working role models with a plan for their future.