Best of the best: four seniors earn top honors

Posted May 27, 2015 at 2:22 pm

Every year, Clinton County High School honors the hard work of three individuals who have sacrificed a lot for their school work. This year, CCHS will honor four.

In what came down to a tie in the Valedictorian spot, CCHS Principal Sheldon Harland said he ran final grades to six decimal points and there was still no separation in the grade point average between the top two graduates.

This year, earning the top four spots are Brett Shepherd, Taylor Albertson, Brooke Wright and Lance Claywell.

Shepard and Albertson tied for the top spot, which earned them co-valedictorian honors with a projected GPA of 4.175, while Wright finished with a projected GPA of 4.02 and salutatorian honors and Claywell finished with a 4.0 and will be the historian for the Class of 2015.

The projected GPA considers what final grades would be if all four students were to receive an A in their final classes for this semester. Harlan said the grades are not likely to change.

Several years ago policy changed at Clinton County High School and the Historian spot was dedicated to the person with the third highest GPA in each class. In this year’s case, it is the fourth spot, but it doesn’t tarnish the extreme dedication each one of the top GPA students have put forth during four years of high school.

Each have made their sacrifices and are now looking at their last week of high school before moving on to the next big step of their lives.

In order to maintain the top spot in the class, Shepherd said it has not been difficult maintaining his grades. He said he has done really well in class and pays attention, which is what he tributes to his above average grades.

Claywell said the work wasn’t the difficult part, but managing other things, like basketball, as well as school work was difficult.

“Trying to balance keeping my grades up during season was hard,” Claywell said. “You are always pushed for time. You get home from a game late at night and you have an assignment due the next morning … you lose a lot of sleep, but other than that, it hasn’t been too difficult.”

Studying and working hard through high school is what it takes according to Wright.

“It takes a lot of time in order to study hard and to take time out of your free time to do your homework,” Wright said. “I didn’t really think I was going to be one of the top students. I always wanted to be in the top and I was surprised I ended up here.”

Wright said she is also in the band and staying after school to practice and doing a lot of work during her free time was difficult.

“You have to organize your schedule,” Wright said.

Albertson said she has had to take several AP classes she didn’t want to take, however, she feels it has given her the chance to be in the position she is in now.

“It’s not been that hard … I am in band, so it was hard trying to keep up with all that stuff also, but it wasn’t that bad,” Albertson said.

All four of the top spots in the 2015 class have had to juggle not only school work, but extracurricular activities as well.

Shepherd said he plans to attend the University of Kentucky to study engineering. He want to work with his brother and develop software applications as well as web designs and computer situations.

“I’m going to UK in the fall,” Albertson said. “As of right now I plan on majoring in chemistry and going into pharmacy. I’m in the pharmacy technictan class at the vocational school and I’ve done some work at Dyer Drug and I’m really interested in it.”

Claywell said he plans to attend Somerset Community College for the first two years then transfer to Tennessee Tech.

“I don’t have a major picked out yet, so I don’t really know what I’m going to go into,” Claywell said. “A lot of people know what they are going to do, but me, at 18 years old, I don’t really have a clear picture of what I want to do. It’s hard to tell right now, but I will figure it out sometime.”

Wright said she plans on attending Western Kentucky University in the fall and becoming a psychology major in order to be a school psychologist.

“I was going to go to be a teacher, but then my mom talked me out of it. I really like psychology.”

During the past four years, doing all the work on their own isn’t really feasible. Along the way, people have been put in their lives to help here and there and each one of the top four classmates have someone like that in their lives.

Shepherd said his brother Brandon has been one of the most influential people in his life, while Claywell said his sister is his biggest supporter.

“He has motivated me to keep my grades up,” Shepherd said.

Both Claywell’s and Shepherd’s siblings also know what it’s like being in the top of their class, having both been valedictorians in their graduating classes.

“She was always there when I needed her and she always pushed me to keep my grades up,” Claywell said of his sister. “She taught me the importance of being in the top of the class and having good grades.”

Wright’s influence has been Band Director Doug Sell.

“I’ve been in band for so long and he teaches us life lessons,” Wright said.

Albertson said she owes her influence to her grandmother.

“She recently passed away and it made me realize how much influence she had in my life,” Albertson said.

All four students had advice to offer for the incoming freshmen who will start their high school careers next fall.

All four said to pay attention in class, do your homework and study.

“If you don’t pay attention in class you can get behind and it’s really hard to learn what’s going on if you don’t,” Claywell said. “It’s not going to be the end of the world if you don’t get a perfect score on every assignment. Just keep up with what you do and don’t get too far behind and you will be alright.”

Albertson said not to get involved with the drama that comes with high school.

“The four years will fly by … they sure have for us,” Albertson said.

Wright’s advise to incoming freshmen is “don’t be scared.”

“Don’t be scared of high school,” Wright said. “It might be scary at first because you don’t know where all your classes are and all the upperclassmen are pushing you around, but you just have to be yourself and make your own way.”

Shepherd thinks he will miss hanging out with friends most of all. As people from the Class of 2015 graduate and go their separate ways, friendships will change and that’s one thing he says he will miss.

Claywell said there is nothing like stepping out on the basketball floor at Lindle Castle Gymnasium and that’s what he will miss the most.

Being in the band for the past four years, Albertson said she will miss it the most. She doesn’t plan on playing in college, but she will definitely miss her time she spent playing in high school.

Shepherd is the son of Sherri Shepherd and Steve Shepherd. Albertson is the daughter of Joey and Sabra Albertson. Wright is the daughter of Sandra Wright and Todd Wright. Claywell is the son of David and Debbie Claywell.

Clinton County will host two nights of graduation with Awards Night on Thursday, May 28 at 7 p.m. and Graduation Night on Friday, May 29 at 7 p.m.