Tonight more than 100 Bulldogs will walk into the VanHuss-White Gymnasium as seniors but will walk out as alumni.
Hampton High School will hold its graduation ceremony tonight at 7 p.m. at the school.
The Hampton Class of 2016 is full of achievements in both the realm of athletics and in the classroom according to school staff.
“This class is phenomenal,” said Dr. Amy Banner, a teacher at the school who has assisted in coordinating the graduation ceremony. “They were Final Four in football, Final Four in basketball and had a lot of academic achievers as well.”
Of the graduating Bulldogs, 16 are finishing their high school with perfect 4.0 grade point averages, which made the task of naming a valedictorian and salutatorian difficult for school administrators. “All of them scored amazingly well on their ACTs too,” Banner said.
In order to determine who would be named to the two top spots, Banner said Hampton High Principal Jeff Bradley put together a committee that looked at the grades from a numeric value —a grade of a 99 A was given more standing than a grade of 95 A —as well as figuring in the student’s ACT score, the number of advanced classes the student took and other factors as well.
After all the analysis, school officials named Jared Wiltshire as Valedictorian for the Class of 2016 and Emily Smith as the Salutatorian.
During tonight’s graduation ceremony, Wiltshire and Smith will address their classmates, as will Senior Class President Ellie Campbell.
While tonight will mark the end of their high school careers, for most of the graduating Bulldogs it will not be the end of their educations. Banner said a majority of the students will continue their education and career training by attending either college, a technical or trade school, or through military service.
Among seniors this year are two students who received Congressional appointments to prestigious military academies.
After graduation, Wiltshire will be attending the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, M.D., following a Congressional appointment by U.S. Rep. Phil Roe.
Jake Lyons received Congressional appointments to the Air Force Academy, the Military Academy at West Point and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. However, after receiving the appointments he was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, which disqualified him from pursuing those military academies. Instead, Lyons was among only a small group of students in the nation who was accepted to begin studies this Fall at Georgetown University, where he was awarded with a scholarship worth $148,400 over four years.