Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include names of the 21 student valedictorians. Names are posted at the bottom, along with the college each student is planning to attend.
Hilo High School will feature 21 valedictorians at its commencement ceremony Friday, which is more than any other school in the Tribune-Herald’s coverage area and more than Principal Bob Dircks can recall in his 13 years at his job.
“Oh my gosh, I’m very proud of them,” Dircks said in an interview Thursday. “I’m at a loss. ‘What do I say (at commencement) to this group of kids?’”
The 21 students earned the honor by achieving a 4.0 grade point average and successfully completing an honors recognition certificate. They represent about 8 percent of Hilo’s roughly 260-student graduating class. Last year, Hilo had nine valedictorians.
Valedictorian requirements changed starting with the class of 2016. Previously, schools chose valedictorians as the students with the highest academic GPA.
New valedictorian requirements are designed partly to accommodate an uptick in students taking Advanced Placement courses.
AP classes, which allow students to earn college credit and thus are generally deemed more rigorous, are graded on a 5.0 scale. For example, an A grade in an AP course would be deemed a 5.0 rather than a 4.0, as in a traditional class.
Dircks attributes Hilo’s impressive valedictorian count this year to “hard work on the students’ parts” and “adult support” from parents and teachers.
“You can look at it any number of ways, but I think these kids are just driven,” Dircks said.
“They are putting in all their waking moments into studying for senior year, and they have support of their parents and (also) teachers that care. I think that’s also the key to success for a lot of these students. It’s people showing them, ‘Hey you can do it,’ and this is the result.”
Hilo’s valedictorians traditionally address their class during the commencement ceremony. Dircks said this year’s 21 students are currently drafting a collective way to do so, but he doesn’t know what their plan is.
“It’s a very cohesive group of students, not just the valedictorians, but (the entire class),” Dircks said. “ … It’s been a very good year for Hilo High School.”
Other valedictorian totals for public schools in the Tribune-Herald’s coverage area are:
• Honokaa High: Six (about 130 students graduating).
• Ka‘u High: Two (about 41 students graduating).
• Pahoa High: One (about 75 students graduating).
• Keaau High: 10 (206 students graduating).
• Waiakea High: 14 (283 students graduating).
Hilo High’s 21 valedictorians are:
Grace Morita – University of Hawaii at Manoa
Alaka’i Iaea-Russell – University of Hawaii at Hilo
Alyssa Akiyama – University of San Francisco
Jennifer Gervais – U.S. Military Academy, West Point Christine
Joy Galdones – University of Hawaii at Hilo
Lokelani Ferreira – California Polytechnic University
Jack Petrison – Stanford University
Kysha-Jean Tmakiung – University of Hawaii at Hilo
Emme Furuya – University of Hawaii at Hilo
Hailey Rosario – University of Portland
Jessica Valdez – University of Hawaii at Hilo
Lauree Anne DeMattos – Loyola Marymount University
Silas Pelkey – Rhodes College
Jye Leong – Fashion Institute of Technology
Lukas Kuipers – Southern Utah University
Callie Oyama – Pacific University
Danielle Brown – George Fox University
Kazmyrr Alcon – Seattle University
Cole Dill-Desa – Boston University
Langston Hamilton – University of Hawaii at Hilo
Sunny Sakai – Princeton University
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
