Throughout high school many students work hard to excel academically in order to have the opportunity to achieve further education. Graduating at the top of a class is a great achievement and it requires a lot of hard work and dedication. The valedictorian represent the school and give the staff and teachers someone to be proud of. The class of 2019 has co-valedictorians this year, Jahvin Purnell and Ryan Schoenberg.

Jahvin Purnell described freshman and sophomore year as stressful, “But once I started getting into it it became easier. It was a lot of learning the patterns of school work, and learning how to adjust to schedule changes and letting teachers know about schedule conflicts, and how to cope with everything. It felt like all of this was preparation for college and how college life is going to be.”

There are preconceived notions about valedictorians being only focused on school work and not getting to experience as much social life as peers, which Jahvin responded to by saying, “I was caught up in a lot of school work, so I felt like I could have been more involved in more social life, but being in groups or clubs was a social outlet for me.” Graduating number 1 in a class is a great achievement and he always dreamed of graduating at the top, ever since middle school, but he never thought he would be that close to the top. Jahvin plans to go to William & Mary to study business.

Ryan Schoenberg described his time at Menchville as a, “A big learning experience. I felt like part of high school is learning how to start functioning as an adult. I have definitely gone through a growth process, and it was really hard sometimes but I think I have gone through my cycle of figuring things out. I feel like I have learned a lot of new things, not just about subjects, but about generally about operating as a person, and it has been a very good experience overall.”

Ryan feels like he had for the most part accomplished all the things he wanted to during these 4 years, but sometimes he wishes there were more hours in the day to fit more things in. He was also not expecting to graduate at the very top of his class, and it was quite a shock to him, and when he found out, “Just keeping an A in all my AP classes got me to the top, I was surprised. It is a nice experience to know that people are going to know that I definitely worked hard to maintain a good standing in high school so, I am very thankful for that, and everyone who supported me.” Ryan plans to go to Georgia Tech to become a material science engineer.

Jahvin Purnell and Ryan Schoenburg both represent Menchville in the best way by getting across the message that having a good worth ethic and being dedicated students throughout high school pays off. Their high school journey is coming to a close, but they’re about to open a new chapter of their lives starting now.