The best: combination of athleticism and intelligence
Cross country and track athlete Sarah Daly will bring a 4.6 grade-point average to Amherst (Mass.) College, where she hopes to study international relations - she knows French and Spanish and looks forward to learning Chinese. She's most concerned with Africa's poverty and AIDS situation. Last year Wheaton Academy concluded a six-year partnership with a village in Zambia and now has a project to help finance small business in Nairobi, Kenya.
Daly said: "Most importantly as a Christian, I'm completely, 100 percent called to meet the needs of my fellow human beings. ... I want to know that I did my best and my part to make a difference.
"It is a global pandemic of my generation, our generation, and I'm not going to ignore it. I feel that now I have the information and have the channels to make a difference. I have to be a part of it."
Fenton Valedictorian Samantha Rubright will have earned 11 varsity letters in softball, volleyball and basketball while compiling a 4.35 GPA. She'll most likely attend Illinois Wesleyan, where she plans on playing basketball and softball at least in her first year. Currently tickling Rubright's fancy are those cheeky Somalian pirates.
"It's interesting when you hear about pirates, you're normally thinking about the 1700s, but it's a real issue today. Having that (American) captain captured has an effect on a lot of different places, because it's hurting ships from all over the world...
"I have read recently that they capture the pirates and don't really have a method of prosecuting them. They capture them and take their weapons and in some cases let them go. I think there should be a more severe punishment than that."
Decisions, decisions. Casey Thomson, a cross country and track athlete with a 4.7 GPA, will decide between biological science or international studies. She chose Harvard after also being accepted by Northwestern and Duke. She's a two-time Upstate Eight Conference indoor 3,200-meter winner.
While Thomson ponders alternative energy sources and conservation, "I'd probably have to say my biggest world issue is pediatric cancer." Her grandmother, Patricia Jones died of cancer three years ago.
"I think it's such a traumatic aspect of our lives," Thomson said. "I think of all the people in the world, it hurts me that kids get cancer. It's a bad thing no matter what, but the fact that children have to grow up so fast and deal with something so horrible just strikes a chord with me."
Henry Yan - Lisle's Valedictorian with a 5.3 GPA on a 5-point scale despite playing football, wrestling and running track - already knows he'll study aerospace engineering at the University of Illinois. After all, his father studied at the top engineering college in Beijing. Yan recently attended a convention concerning new research into genetic engineering, yet his topic is more a state of consciousness.
"A lot of time people seem to be completely ignorant of the state of the world," he said. "The world's changing around us and we should go out and try to find out what's different.
"It's more of an awareness of what's going on around you, like what other people are doing and what's happening. Just everyday life - news, politics. What I'm saying is really broad."
Really smart, too.