Jennifer Li has been announced as the Valedictorian of the graduating class of 2015, with Ryan Suggs as the Salutatorian, both titles declared official on April 24, 2015 .
“I have technically been Valedictorian since my Sophomore year because I was taking lots of AP classes when most of the kids in my grade weren’t taking any. I’ve kept it up by taking even more APs and other hard classes. Plus I have a really good short-term memory, so I test well. I guess I’m really just a natural genius,” Li said.
Li will have a final grade point average of 5.4, with Suggs only about .2 of a point behind her, with a final grade point average of 5.212, but he was still excited to find out he had made it to Salutatorian status.
“I felt honored to be both recognized and given the opportunity to speak at graduation. I never strove for a high class rank, I just wanted to get into a good college. Becoming Salutatorian was simply a by-product of trying to do that, so I am just thrilled to be recognized,” said Suggs.
Both students worked hard to get to the place they are now. By the end of this year, Li will have taken 16 AP courses. This past year alone she was President of Key Club, Co-Vice President of National Honors Society and Raleigh’s Ruby Slippers Chinese Dance Club, as well as a swimmer for the Athens Drive swim team.
Suggs will have taken eight AP classes by the conclusion of the school year, in addition to three college level classes at North Carolina State University. He was also the Co-Vice President of National Honors Society, Drum Major in the Athens Drive Marching Band, and Co-Captain of the Athens Drive golf team, despite having only joined at the beginning of this school year. He played lacrosse as well, up until the end of his junior year, focusing that time this year on helping with the daycare in association with the volunteer organization, PLM Families Together.
Li and Suggs are similar in the amount of academic and extracurricular classes activities they have taken part in, but they have quite contrasting ways of actually achieving success in said activities.
“I don’t believe in staying up really late to do school work, because then I won’t be able to focus the next day. I also drink tea instead of coffee or energy drinks. I think it’s unhealthy to drink a lot of caffeine, or, if you really like it, you should drink it in moderation,” said Li.
Li is an avid believer in doing things in moderation. On top of having caffeine in moderation, she eats junk food, spends money, and plays video games in moderation. She has cut television and Netflix out of her life almost completely, making her somewhat of an outlier among teens in general.
Suggs, on the other hand, prefers to make sure that he knows all information that he could possibly need to know on upcoming assignments, even if that means sacrificing his sleep schedule.
“My one major rule is to never go into a test or exam not 100% prepared. If that means
I stay up until 5 a.m. the night before, then so be it, but I make sure I’m prepared,” said Suggs.
Li will attend the honors college at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a guaranteed admission into their extremely prestigious business school. Suggs will attend Duke University and is planning on majoring in electrical and computer engineering. Both students will continue to strive for success in the future and hope that their example will be followed by students in future years at Athens Drive.
