Friday night will mark a new chapter in the lives of 100 students at Clinton County High School as commencement gets underway around 7 p.m.

This year, three students hold the top spots as the Class of 2012’s Valedictorian, Salutatorian, and Historian.

William Cox has spent the previous four years working to become the best in his class. At Friday night’s graduation ceremonies, he will be presented as the Valedictorian with a GPA of 4.08. He is the son of Paul Cox and Jennifer Dyer.

Jared Hunter is this year’s Salutatorian with a GPA of 4.07 and is the son of Mitchell and Kathy Hunter.

This year’s Historian honors goes to Brittany Smith with a GPA of 3.99. She is the daughter of Doug Smith and Katrina Smith.

During a recent interview, all three expressed their feel of accomplishment for their success and are looking forward to the next chapter in their lives.

Cox has his sights set for the University of Kentucky and majoring in political science.

“I really enjoy improving my community, so with a degree in political science I feel that will best facilitate my goals,” Cox said.

Hunter plans on attending Lindsey Wilson College and pursuing a degree in biology.

“I’m going into pharmacy,” Hunter said. “I wanted something where I could provide for a family someday. I also wanted something close to home and in the medical field.”

Smith, like Hunter, will attend Lindsey Wilson College in the fall, but she is more or less undecided in a particular field of study.

“I’m possibly interested in education,” Smith said. “I think maybe more early childhood education. I have three sisters and I tutor at the elementary school everyday. I just really like being able to help them. There are some issues with the system that I feel need to be brought up more, especially with mentally handicapped children … how they are just pushed to the side and given a page to color instead of pushed to their full potential.”

All three students agree you have to push yourself to becoming a better student.

“In order to get to the top three, you have to have really good work ethic,” Hunter said. “That also goes hand in hand with wanting to learn as much as possible. It’s kind of difficult … there are a lot of long nights. That’s what you have to do in college, so it’s preparation at its best.”

All three of this year’s top students gave some advice to incoming freshmen during the interview Friday. Hunter said the first year is probably the most important.

“I would tell them not to waste their first year,” Hunter said. “They probably think they can come in and take it easy, but you need to get in the habit of going the extra mile in classes and getting everything you possibly can out of your high school career.”

Cox, Hunter and Smith are also involved in activities that require them to spend time on other things outside of school. All three agree that it’s difficult to juggle everything, but there is always people who can help.

Cox was involved with tennis, soccer and is an Eagle Scout, but said students also have to make time for church and family as well.

“It just gets really busy, but you have to make it your priorities,” Cox said. “You have to set goals. There is a lot of hard work, but you have people that can help you. Even amongst us three, we try to help each other to get better. It’s been a good experience.”

Although Smith wasn’t involved in sports, her tutoring was done outside of school in her spare time. She said her family took a lot of her time outside the school day as well.

“My family was the biggest thing for me because when I first came into high school, my baby sister had to have open heart surgery, so it was kind of hard to transition from the middle school to the high school,” Smith said. “A lot of times I felt like giving up because I had to stay up and help her … It was really difficult, but God had a lot to do with it. He helped me through it.”

Now that the previous four years have passed for Cox, Hunter and Smith, they will cherish the times they had with each other and their classmates. They all agreed the people are what they will miss the most.

“The people, definitely … This year I will miss the teachers who I have grown to view as a friend … still a mentor, but a friend as well,” Hunter said. “That environment where you are surrounded by people you know and are friends with. I will miss that.”

Cox said the high school experience is different in Clinton County than it would be in most larger cities. These 100 classmates have been together for the past 12 years.

“We have a unique situation here. We’ve been with these people for 12 years,” Cox said. “It’s a big part of our life. It’s going to be hard to move on after that.

Smith added that she agreed with both of her classmates and added that a lot of high school is like having a family.

“We know so much about one another. It’s actually weird that we look forward to coming to school just to see other people,” Smith said.

“Everybody knows everybody’s mom and dad, we all know Brittany’s sisters … everybody knows everybody,” Hunter added.

During the interview Friday, all three students were asked who has influenced them the most during their four years of high school.

“My mother (Kathy Hunter, teacher at CCHS) … I’ve seen her everyday for the past four years,” Hunter said with a chuckle. “I get a lot of my work ethic from her and she has really been the driving force behind me taking the advanced classes and all that stuff. She has pushed me to be the best I can be.”

While Hunter’s answer came fairly quick, Cox had a tougher time with the question. He said there wasn’t just one person he could name, but rather it was a collection of people in his life who have been there offering their support.

“That’s a hard question. There are a lot of people who have helped me over the years,” Cox said. “The thing that keeps me going is trying to get better, but it’s hard to pick out just one person.”

“I’ve had a bunch of people help me also,” Smith added. “Being a part of the Upward Bound program, Stephanie Likins has been there for me. If I ever needed to talk or needed help with anything, she has been there.”

As the final week of high school comes to an end, these three students are feeling it’s going to be hard to let go, but are optimistic about the future that lies ahead.

“I looked at high school as another chapter to be read, so college will be the same thing,” Hunter said. “Hopefully it will be as exciting as the last four years.”

“I had a lot of fun,” Cox said. “It was great here and I wouldn’t have chosen to go anywhere else. I’m excited, but it’s a weird feeling. You always hear of people saying it’s the best years of your life and now we get to say it to other people.”

“It’s been awesome, but I’m going to miss it. Where I chose to go to college is a small town atmosphere also, so I will be able to form relationships like I have here … It’s close to home and I feel like I will have as great of an experience there as I did here,” Smith said.

Clinton County’s graduation will be held Friday night, May 18, 2012, at Lindle Castle Gymnasium at 7 p.m.

A special Class of 2012 section can be found elsewhere in this edition of the Clinton County News.