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Head of the class
Valedictorians, salutatorians talk about being at the top of the senior class, preparing for commencement speeches
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Alison Aunkst sat in the crowd at her older brother’s high school graduation five years ago and listened as the top senior students delivered their commencement speeches.
A middle school student at the time, Aunkst said, she was in awe of these individuals for what they had achieved — that they were able to represent their class and share their views and high school experiences with the audience.
“I looked up to them. They were huge role models for me,” she said. “I just thought they were the coolest people. I wanted to be like them.”
Turns out she is.
Aunkst is Boiling Springs class salutatorian for 2008.
The senior basketball player, who never viewed herself as an intelligent person growing up, said it all started to click for her in high school. By sophomore year, she found herself at No. 5 in the class ... a lot higher than she expected to be.
“I work hard at everything I do. It just fell into place,” she said.
This past summer she started to make a push for the top, she explained, hoping to reach at least No. 2 out of the 188 seniors.
“I really wanted it, so I buckled down,” Aunkst said.
By the end of the third marking period in mid-April, the class knew the rankings. Aunkst was completely surprised she had achieved her goal.
“My class is really competitive,” she said. “The top 40 students have a 94 grade point average and the (separation) from two to 14 is by like 0.3 percentage points.”
Her weighted average, which includes honors and advanced preparation courses, is around 102 percent.
Austin Chamberlain, the Boiling Spring class valedictorian, will also finish around 102 percent.
Chamberlain, who was at the head of the class for all four years of high school, said it’s an honor to finish there after all the hard work.
He found out in the middle of a class that he was valedictorian.
What it takes
Chamberlain said one of the keys to reaching the top is paying attention in class all the time. If he needed help, he asked his teachers and fellow classmates, he said, especially when it came to English and learning about symbolism and imagery.
Probably the most important thing, though, is just to “have fun,” he explained.
“If you are not having fun, you don’t learn as much,” he said.
Aunkst also struggled in English. She said it’s all about hard work.
“Everything I do, I try to do at the best of my ability,” she said. “If you are not giving all of your effort, it’s not worth it. You will never realize your full potential.”
And it’s not about reaching the top, but instead enjoying what you do and having fun, she argued.
“If you are not having fun, you’re doing something wrong,” Aunkst said.
Cumberland Valley valedictorian Ryan Kreitzer and salutatorian Arjun Mudan explained that being successful depends on your willingness to never give up, no matter what, and just having the confidence to succeed.
“It really pays off not to throw in the towel,” Kreitzer said. “If you try to give your best in every circumstance, then it pays off in the end.”
Mudan said: “Find a niche and exploit it. Be good at what you’re good at.”
The moment
Kreitzer said it was a great honor to find out he was class valedictorian out of nearly 600 Cumberland Valley seniors.
He was first in his class for the past two years.
“It wasn’t necessarily a surprise, but at the same time it was a little shocking what I had accomplished,” he said, noting that he found out in March. “We got our report cards and there was my report card with the class rank of one on it.”
He will finish with a weighted average of 104.3 percent.
Mudan also said it wasn’t completely unexpected for him to finish where he did. He had been near the top of the class since freshman year.
However, it was still satisfying to hear he was salutatorian, he explained.
“I was pretty happy I got a ‘’torian title,’” he said. “Being number two or one, it’s still great.”
The most challenging part for him was not the day-to-day homework, but rather the way his classes were set up. He regularly pulled all-nighters when the classes loaded up with papers and projects, all due around the same time, he said.
Independent study for his Calculus 2 class was the greatest hurdle for Kreitzer, he explained, because of the unorthodox manner of the class.
Talking points
All four students said the hardest part about writing their commencement speeches was finding a focus that appeals to every single class member.
“For writing it, I kind of tried to tread a little bit carefully,” Mudan said. “I wanted to say something meaningful, but not dampen the mood. I tried to make it light-hearted, but with meaning.”
Each said they wanted to avoid talking about a specific class, because not everyone could relate to that.
So Mudan chose to focus his speech on cafeteria food, he said.
“It’s the entire experience of going into the kitchen and having so many different options, a certain amount of money, time ... it’s the entire experience of making decisions,” he said. It can be overwhelming at first, but you gradually get used to it, he explained.
Aunkst said her biggest fear is that it’s going to be boring. She had a couple of speech ideas, but eventually settled on talking about finding what you love to do, instead of settling.
“It’s about making sure you love what you do,” she said.
Kreitzer said he just tried to look at the problems students have in their lives and how easy it is to be complacent.
“We all run into the same problems with being so consumed that we forget to look back. We need to look at ourselves and how we can improve as people,” he said.
He decided to maintain a broad focus and talk about common experiences — from everyday things like homework and stressing over papers to events like the near-teachers’ strike at Cumberland Valley this spring.
“It made life stressful at CV,” he said, adding everyone was happy it ended before a walkout.
Chamberlain also focused his speech on the journey of life and the challenges students will face after graduation, he said.
“I tried to make some of the images as vivid as I could,” he said.
Teachers have been advising students on their speeches and helping them with revisions along the way. Administrators review them before the graduation ceremony.
“They even put our speeches in a folder and have it ready on the podium, so we don’t have to carry it with us,” Aunkst said.
Editor’s note: Many school districts do not announce the valedictorian and salutatorian immediately after class rankings are known. Big Spring High School will reveal the names of these students June 3, with commencement June 6. Carlisle High School announces the students’ names on commencement night, June 5.
Mechanicsburg Area Senior High School does not designate a valedictorian or salutatorian.
