HUNTSVILLE — Editor’s Note: Earlier this summer, we produced a feature highlighting valedictorians and salutatorians from area high schools. Due to some logistical bumps, we were unable to include the top students from Alpha Omega Academy in that feature. We are pleased to feature them today.



Annie Knight, Valedictorian



In addition to school, what other academic and community activities are you involved in?

At Alpha, I was on student council and a member of our Interact group. I was president of our National Honor Society chapter and in Mu Alpha Theta. I have been a worship leader in my youth group for the past two years and have been involved in the leadership programs there.

What are your plans for after high school? What course of study and or career do you hope to pursue?

I plan on attending TCU to study fashion merchandising. I hope one day to be a buyer for department stores.

What was the hardest part about keeping your grade point average so high?

The hardest part was balancing schoolwork and fun; sometimes schoolwork had to win.

Has achieving this honor been a dream of yours since you began school?

Yes

Who were your mentors at school?

Mr. Ponce, my senior British Literature teacher, and Mrs. Pritchard, my senior Government and Economics teacher.

What have you studied that you feel changed your life in a big way?

British Literature. It wasn't the class or the material learned per se, but more of the fact that I learned that class and the act of learning could be enjoyable and exciting.

You’ve now had an opportunity to speak to your fellow students about what you've learned through your academic career. What is your message to them and why?

Schoolwork and grades are important, but do not neglect other extracurricular activities in order to focus solely on them. The relationships one builds while participating in other activities are both crucial and priceless.

What advice do you have for underclassmen who are still working to meet their academic goals?

Do not slack off during your freshman and sophomore years. You will regret it. The grades you earn during these years follow you all of your high school career and could hinder you from being accepted into the college you wish to attend.

How does it feel to have finally arrived at the end of such a long path of work and study to find that you've achieved so much?

Wonderful

What's been your favorite part about life and work at your high school and why?

The friendships built. My school is small, so the relationships we all have are precious to me because we're all so close. Everyone in my graduating class is like my sibling and I love each of them dearly.



James Osborne, Valedictorian



In addition to school, what other academic and community activities are you involved in?

I did Impact Huntsville for a few years; I worked on houses. Honestly, though, in high-school, I played sports and held a job my senior year, and that was about it.

What are your plans for after high school? What course of study and or career do you hope to pursue?

As of right now, I plan to go to the University of Alabama and get my bachelor's in civil engineering. Some day I would love to do some relief work in Haiti or Japan. Honestly, though, you never really know about those long-term plans; they tend to change over time. In the nearer future, though, I intend to work hard and scrap for cash so I can have some spending change for college.

What was the hardest part about keeping your grade point average so high?

The hardest part of keeping up the GPA was the Senioritis. I got to a point where I was losing the will to push myself. Thankfully, there were others, namely God and my parents, who pushed me on at the end.

Has achieving this honor been a dream of yours since you began school?

Becoming a valedictorian never was a dream of mine. My freshman year, I had no idea that I could even make all A’s. At first the grades weren't a major goal; I did it to see if I could keep the A streak up. Later on, however, becoming a valedictorian became a goal. The reason I decided to do it was to break stereotypes. To put it bluntly, black guys like me have a host of stereotypes associated with us, and "intelligent" is definitely not one of them. My making all A’s was, hopefully, a way of showing that not all black men are saggin' thugs or ball players; you can't just put us in a "gangsta box", because there is more to us than meets the eye.

Who were your mentors at school?

My mentors in high school are numerous, but a few of the major ones are, first of all, my parents, who were there all the time to help me out. Mr. Barry and his dad encouraged me greatly. A lot of the members and former members of First Missionary Baptist Church steered me along. Coach Allen, my former vice principal, helped me out, especially in my fist two years of high school. Rev. Nicholas helped me out in my last year, and I cannot forget about my brother and my extended family. To all those whom I did not mention, know that you too were a part of the village which raised this child.

What have you studied that you feel changed your life in a big way?

The biggest thing that I studied which has really changed my life is recidivism. Recidivism is a measure of the men who get out of incarceration, only to go back in. While I studied this topic, I came across some alarming stats which have changed my way of thinking. Simply put, the prison population is composed of mostly (over 90 percent) men, and black men make up most of the prison population. If you are black at all (or Hispanic), you are simply more prone to jail time if you do not obey the law (and in some cases if you do). An increasingly large fraction of the black male population is behind bars these days; prison seems to be the new slavery. A thought: Is it not ironic that a people who came to this nation in chains now find themselves increasingly locked up in chains once again, and made legally into second-class citizens due to the fact that the right of suffrage, a right so heavily fought for by many men of past days, is stripped from all who don prison-chains?

You’ve now had an opportunity to speak to your fellow students about what you've learned through your academic career. What was your message to them and why?

What advice do you have for underclassmen who are still working to meet their academic goals?

My message to all high-schoolers coming up and to my fellow graduates is simple: Graduate, and once graduated, go to college (or the military). The days when all you needed to make it in the world were a diploma and a factory job are gone, mostly because the factory jobs are gone (to third-world countries, where the wages are pennies an hour). These days, there isn't much love in the economy for the dropout or the high-school graduate with no other credentials, so go to college and get that degree, or enlist and do well, if you want to make a decent living.

How does it feel to have finally arrived at the end of such a long path of work and study to find that you've achieved so much?

I said it before and I'll say it again: I feel as though I am on the edge of a cliff, about to jump off into the uncertainty that is the future. I do feel somewhat accomplished at having gotten through 12 years of formal schooling, but I am nowhere near done yet. I still have much to achieve, and it all lies off the edge of that cliff, so here I GOOOOooooo...

What's been your favorite part about life and work at your high school and why?

My favorite part of it all has been my family. I am grateful to have been blessed to have two parents who love each other (and an annoying little brother whom I will miss next fall) to grow up with. In the midst of all the craziness, they have been a steadying force on me and have given me some stability and a great childhood from which to transition.



Libby Rogers, Valedictorian



In addition to school, what other academic and community activities are you involved in?

Interact, Vice President of Student Council, Secretary of National Honor Society, President of Mu Alpha Theta, church leadership, worship team, technical staff at church

What are your plans for after high school? What course of study and or career do you hope to pursue?

I will be attending Baylor University in the fall and majoring in journalism. I hope to use this education to eventually pursue a career in international humanitarian law.

What was the hardest part about keeping your grade point average so high?

The discipline it requires.

Has achieving this honor been a dream of yours since you began school?

No not really. Although once I understood that I'd get scholarships for this honor it became much more important to me.

Who were your mentors at school?

My parents, of course, and Julie Knight. Probably the biggest influence on me academically was my 12th grade British Literature teacher Mr. Timothy M. Ponce. He took a class that had been told almost our entire school careers that we were immature and demanded maturity and excellence from us.

What have you studied that you feel changed your life in a big way?

I think the area of study that has changed my life is not a subject that I was taught in school; it is, however, an area that I was given the opportunity to study by Alpha Omega. This subject is the travesty and prevalence of sex trafficking in the modern world. Because we are required to write and present a senior thesis before we can graduate from Alpha, I was given the opportunity to pursue this area of study in much more depth than I would have been able to on my own.

You’ve now had an opportunity to speak to your fellow students about what you've learned through your academic career. What was your message to them and why?

The ability to have a good education is a luxury that many people in other areas of the world are not afforded; don't waste it.

What advice do you have for underclassmen who are still working to meet their academic goals?

Do not slack off you first couple years of high school. It just makes everything harder later.

How does it feel to have finally arrived at the end of such a long path of work and study to find that you've achieved so much?

It feels amazing. However, I would like to point out that graduation is a commencement ceremony and commencement is literally defined as a "beginning". In that light, I don't look at graduation as the end of my education but the beginning of endless possibilities.

What's been your favorite part about life and work at your high school and why?

The people. When I first started at Alpha in the first grade there were so few students in the whole school that we were just like a family. That dynamic has changed a lot as we've grown and gained momentum, but the willingness of the teachers to go out of their ways to help you and the students to make sure you feel at home hasn't changed at all.



Clint Morrison, Salutatorian



In addition to school, what other academic and community activities are you involved in?

Outside of school, my only extracurricular activities were those of church and the raising and showing of goats and swine.

What are your plans for after high school? What course of study and or career do you hope to pursue?

My plans are to pursue a bachelor degree in English at Sam Houston State University, hopefully followed by pursuing my graduate studies at an Ivy League school. I hope to become an English professor and writer.

What was the hardest part about keeping your grade point average so high?

The hard part was not keeping my grade point average high. On the contrary, the hardest part was to learn how to balance maintaining a high grade point average and knowing when to turn that switch off in my mind to be able to relax and have fun.

Has achieving this honor been a dream of yours since you began school?

Pretty much; the challenge of achieving anything that seems just a little out of reach has always been intriguing to me. In elementary school I was put into speech therapy classes. Who would have ever thought that little boy then would be presenting a 20 minute thesis, clearly, in front of a gym full of people his senior year? But even back then, I dreamt of doing great in school, I just did not realize how much of a possibility it would become.

Who were your mentors at school?

It depends which school we are discussing. My first three years of high school were spent at Huntsville where my mentors consisted of Mrs. Karen Tymniak and a few older students I truly looked up to. At Alpha Omega, my main mentors were Mr. Tim Ponce and Mrs. Lawson; both helped me great deal with scholarship information and with studying for the AP exams.

What have you studied that you feel changed your life in a big way?

Anything involving English or Mathematics, and French but that is for different reasons. English opened my eyes to how the world thinks today and how it thought from the beginning of written history. It fascinates me more than I can describe here in words. Mathematics has, in most cases, always provided me with the challenge I needed to keep pursuing more knowledge. Math has also proven to me that with just little extra input anything is achievable.

You’ve now had an opportunity to speak to your fellow students about what you've learned through your academic career. What was your message to them and why?

Follow your goals and dreams to the very end; sometimes there will be hardships and rough patches but once it is all said and done the feeling of accomplishment is matched by none other. And learn the balance between work and play, because giving one too much attention and neglecting the other too much can have consequences.

What advice do you have for underclassmen who are still working to meet their academic goals?

My advice to those underclassmen is to continue pushing forward in their education and to find their own balance between school work and a social life. Take it from someone who had to learn this lesson the hard way; it is no use to work harder than you play. If you give one of the two aspects of life more attention than needed, then the other aspect will suffer and vice versa.

How does it feel to have finally arrived at the end of such a long path of work and study to find that you've achieved so much?

It feels amazing to have accomplished what I have worked so long to achieve, like a burden being lifted off your shoulders or the finishing of a book. Now I walk into a new book in the series of my life, and honestly that is the most exciting aspect of it all.

What's been your favorite part about life and work at your high school and why?

My favorite part of life at Alpha Omega had to be the feeling a student has in one of the private school’s classes, a feeling a person cannot truly understand unless you attended a small classical private school. You are surrounded by people who care and look at you as a person, not just another number. You build strong bonds with these people and become part of a family. On top of that, you have a teacher in front of the class who cares as well and looks at his/her students as students, not just another paycheck.