Co-Valedictorian:
Christopher Felegy
Where are you going to college and what are you majoring in?
I’m going to USF to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Quantitative Economics.
What are you most excited for about going to college?
I think I’m most excited to learn about things that I’m more directly interested in. I’d like to be able to start offering actual research and start toward the career I want.
When you realized you’d be top two in your class, how did you react?
I was kind of hesitant initially. At least from the beginning, that was not the goal. It wasn’t until I saw that it was possible, that I was in top 10 and then top five that I thought, ‘Oh I can actually win this thing.’ I was happy, though. It felt like the natural conclusion. Once I start to work toward something and I see the end in sight, it’s kind of natural for me to finish it out. Once I saw that it was possible I worked toward it, so I wasn’t too surprised when it was announced.
How did you manage your time to balance all your work and succeed like you did?
Coffee. I work essentially a full-time job. During the school year I would get home at 3 o’clock and then I would work 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. Then I would get home and stay up until three or four in the morning and do my homework and sleep for a few hours. Then I would get to school early to get involved in all of the things I was a part of and then I would finish any schoolwork I hadn’t completed and start my next night’s homework assignments at lunch so I had less to do when I got off work. You just have to be motivated and get it done.
What’s one thing you wish you knew about high school in
advance?
Maybe when I first came in there, I maybe should have known how easy it was to just put the work in. That first year when I came in, I definitely didn’t expect at least for the first semester or two to make it this far. So I wasn’t motivated to really put in the work that first year. I think if I would have known coming into it that it would’ve been possible, I might have been able to succeed a little bit more. I could have taken dual enrollment classes freshman year and put more work in I could have had a higher GPA.
What was your favorite moment of high school?
I’m not really sure I have a favorite.
What was the most challenging thing about having COVID-19
disrupt your senior year?
Just the abrupt ending to it. When I found out that graduation was essentially being pushed back to July, which in my eye is essentially being cancelled, coming back to graduate four or five months after not being in the building with everybody doesn’t feel the same. It definitely killed a lot of my motivation for a couple of weeks. I think having the AP exams truly was the only reason that I had motivation to do anything. I’m very much the type of person that has to physically be somewhere to be motivated to give it my full attention, so finding out the year was over and my GPA was frozen killed a lot of my drive.
What’s the best thing you learned from a teacher?
My AP US History teacher taught me that most people aren’t actually your friends. You may think in high school that a lot of people that you get along with are your friends, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are. That takes a lot of pressure off of how you feel you need to perform.
What do you hope to do in life after college?
I would certainly like to go on to have a successful life. Especially with it looking like it’s not going to be a very great economy once I graduate… so eventually I’d like to work in a consultant position with the city or with the state or federal government and try to be able to make an impact on how we run things in this country. And to try to create a positive change for everybody.
What’s one message you’d like to share with your fellow graduates?
It doesn’t really matter so much what you did throughout high school, what matters is what you start doing today. If you want to turn your life into a success, you have to start working on it now.
Co-Valedictorian:
Miranda Bihler
Where are you going to college and what are you majoring in?
I am going to college at Stetson University as a J. Ollie Edmunds Distinguished Scholar. I plan on majoring in Mathematics with a minor in Spanish.
If you are going to college, what are you most looking forward to?
I’m most looking forward to growing my knowledge in advanced and diverse topics. I want to expand my mind and critical thinking and am hoping to earn new experiences and perspectives with my four years at Stetson.
When you realized you’d be top two in your class, how did you react?
During my junior and senior year, I had been striving for this position. However, it was up in the air and fair game for anyone down to the last semester. When I held my summary report in my hands and read the class rank of “1” for the first official time, I was honestly in a state of shock. Not because I hadn’t pushed myself to achieve this goal but because all four years of my hard work and dedication to my academics had paid off and were basically all found in my class position. My desire to be my class’s valedictorian had finally come true and a sense of relief washed over me when I realized my perseverance was not in vain and I had attained my aspiration.
How did you manage your time to successfully balance all of your work and extracurriculars and still manage to have a social life?
It was all about finding small pockets of time and using every minute of them. I had a 45 minute car ride during each morning and afternoon to and from school – back when I didn’t have my license, I would study for any tests I had that day or would start on my homework. Whenever I had a break at work, I would try to finish any simple problems that I could easily complete so I could use my time at home to try finish tougher assignments. Also, having my friends that supported my dream was an integral part of my success. I was able to manage my social life because they understood I couldn’t always go out but they stood by me still and kept me entertained and laughing through so many classes we shared.
What’s one thing you wish you knew about high school in advance?
I heard it from the upperclassmen all the time but it wasn’t something I knew until I experienced it this year: High school goes by in the blink of an eye. Walking to classes, completing homework assignments, stressing about the long lunch lines and the test you need to study for, each day seemed to drag by and I would catch myself counting down the minutes until my next class or day of school. The days seemed to drag on but the years flew by. It’s something that’s repeated by each person that graduates and it’s something that everyone needs to hear but no one believes it until the experience it firsthand.
What was your favorite moment of high school?
My favorite moment of high school was winning the pep rally in the fall of senior year. My class had only one victory prior to this – in our freshman year – so getting to experience the excitement of having the spirit stick and singing the Alma Mater all together while waving it was truly something I’ll always cherish.
What was the most challenging thing about having COVID-19 disrupt your senior year?
Without a doubt, the most challenging for me with COVID-19 disrupting and ending my senior year was accepting that all of the events, rights of passage, and potential memories I would’ve had in those last couple of months were taken from me. Since I was a little girl, I dreamed of going to my own senior prom because it was always shown as such a magical night and a night to remember – especially since I’m part of the group that grew up obsessed with High School Musical. I dreamed of that final clap out and walking down my hallways one last time, hugging my friends and teachers one last time before we were no longer students at the school. But now, those events were cancelled; the few senior events that were chosen to be continued were converted to a virtual format. It was different, we were given something to remember our senior year by, but it’s hard to let go of the fact that the idea I had held of how my senior year would end was thrown to the wayside.
What’s the best thing you learned from a teacher or mentor?
I didn’t realize this was a lesson I learned while I was taking this class but looking back she is someone who started me down this path I’m headed. Mrs. Sieminski, my Algebra 1 teacher at Mulrennan Middle School, taught me many useful skills – like factoring and being able to divide polynomials – but the most important lesson I learned from her was on the first day of school – be authentic. She was unapologetically herself, explaining that some of us would hate her and some of us would love her and she was okay with either reaction. As I’ve continued into life, her opening introduction to my class has always stuck with me and it gives me inspiration to continue being myself regardless of what others may think or how they may react. She sparked my passion for advanced math, taught me the fundamentals that I still use, and left an imprint on my heart on the kind of person I strive to be.
What do you hope to do in life after college?
After college, I hope to pursue a career in data analytics. Although I have not pinpointed exactly the kind of job I hope to hold in this career field, I know that my passion is math and numbers and college will afford me the opportunity to specify my career choice as time moves along. One of my other passions is education; therefore, I plan on earning my mathematics teacher certification in college to teach later in life in order to give back to my community and hopefully inspire students to understand and love math as much as I do.