Salutatorian: Kyleigh Meiers
GPA: 8.67
What accomplishment are you most proud of from your high school years and why?
Being the salutatorian; it’s a full-circle moment. The beginning of freshman year you are working hard and taking all of these AP classes. It was kind of like a reward for working hard over the past few years, like all of the sacrifices, the late nights, all of those things finally paid off. It was the most full-circle moment of high school for me.
Was there a teacher, mentor, or experience that had a major impact on your success?
Definitely Coach Billy Teeden; he’s our success coach at school, and during our baccalaureate, I honored him as my teacher of the year. He’s a super bubbly, encouraging person and he made me want to go to school and made we want to keep pushing to be better. I never had him as a teacher, but he’s the person that floats around school and has all of the energy.
What’s something people might be surprised to learn about you outside of academics?
I grew up playing softball, and I’ve been playing since I was four years old. It’s been 14 years that I’ve played, from t-ball and baseball to playing softball when I was seven. I’ve played travel softball and traveled to California, Colorado, and all over the United States to play softball. It’s been a crazy ride, but it’s so much fun and I’ve learned so much from it that definitely translated to the classroom and definitely changed my mindset when it came to pushing myself.
How did you balance schoolwork with extracurriculars, jobs, sports, or personal life?
Using my calendar and mapping out the different things for the week definitely helped me to be able to know where I needed to be and kind of a timeline of my day. That definitely helped, as well as “people reminders,” like my mom and dad have always been there to remind me.
What was the most challenging moment of high school, and how did you overcome it?
I would probably say the transition from middle school to high school. It was a big culture shock because [high school] is a lot bigger than middle school, and you don’t realize that the years before high school will impact your GPA. I never knew that my GPA in middle school was affecting my high school GPA. You don’t realize that the things you do before [can] change your path. Going into high school, I never really thought about being salutatorian or in the top of my class until I realized that the STEM program at Tomlin boosted my GPA so much; when I went into [high] school, I already was #1 or #2 or somewhere up there. I feel like the longer you are in high school, the easier it gets.
If you could give one piece of advice to incoming freshmen, what would it be?
Take it all in. I would say “yes” to anything people would ask you or offer you to do; always be willing to try new things. You never know what you could get yourself into, the people you could meet, or the opportunities or doors that it could open for you.
What are your plans after graduation, and what excites you most about the future?
I’m attending Florida State University in the fall, and I’m majoring in Biological Sciences to hopefully become an orthopedic surgeon. After high school, I’m going into college with my AA, as I already graduated from HCC, so then I’m going to Florida State with my AA, and then graduating with my master’s, and then going to med school; that is my plan. I would like to specialize in sports injuries and work with athletes.
What excites me the most about the future is connecting with athletes because growing up playing sports my whole life, I’ve seen people go through injuries and how they have impacted their everyday lives, so helping them and changing their lives and helping them get back to the sport that they love is what I am looking forward to.
Looking back, what do you think truly defines a successful high school experience?
I don’t really think it’s measured by achievements, I think it’s more who you are and how you treat others, because it doesn’t matter about the trophies you win, the titles that you get, it’s more about how you treat other people and how people remember you. You want people to remember you as a good person and someone who was always there for others.
