High School Valedictorian

In It to Win It In the essay, “The Joy of Graduating” by Kate Stone Lombardi, describes the traditional high school valedictorian competition with the most prestigious students. The fight for the position of valedictorian has intensified over the years. Danielle Gorman, an elected valedictorian at Moorestown High School in New Jersey, was quoted by Lombardi of the qualifications and standards it took to become valedictorian. The traits Gorman describes common to valedictorians were taking on too much and are unwilling to fail. I think that Gorman’s assessment is reasonable because many people who strive to become valedictorian take on “more than they can chew” by taking multiple advanced placement classes to extracurricular activities in
When it was time to decide who would become the valedictorian, there were two top students whom our class thought would fit the winning spot. One of the students was a girl named Asal, who was elected senior class president for ASB. The other student was a boy named Henock, who was also elected in ASB but for the school president. Both students had superb grades close to a 5.0 gpa and they both participated in every on and off campus school event. Each of them had many responsibilities. They each would do their part to help the school community when it came to any projects or tutoring. They set a great example for the student body to look up to. They wounded up the crowds during athletic games and pep rallies with incredible school spirit. They each would help come up with ideas and themes for dances, along with helping our school clubs with fundraisers and events such as blood drives. They would help put up flyers and make announcements to make the students aware of fundraisers and activities that were constantly going on at school. They would try to help get the whole school more involved by creating fun games and contests going on during lunch to make sure that everyone felt like they were a part of something no matter what grade level they were in. They had all this pressure coming down on them with all these school activities, along with their school work. They felt the
Everyone was sitting in their assigned seats, clothed in their cap and gown anxiously waiting for the speeches to be presented. I was looking around the stage to see who was chosen for the class valedictorian, but I couldn’t seem to spot out Henock or Asal anywhere. The principal was the first to give out the welcome speech. He presented a few awards and gave out some words of wisdom to the present senior class. Finally, at the end of his speech he announced that it was time to name our senior class’ valedictorian. Everyone moved around their seats anxiously trying to see who would be honored with this great achievement. The principal then surprised us with a statement none of us expected. There were to be two valedictorians honored this year because of their outstanding gpa and wide variety of extracurricular activities. Henock and Asal both gained the winning spot that they were each competing