Caleb Acree remembers his classmates at St. Mary on the Hill Catholic School as being academically competitive types.
“We all tried to one up each other,” said Acree, who is the valedictorian of the Richmond County Career Technical Magnet School for the Class of 2022.
Of the 40 or so graduates of the St. Mary’s middle school class of 2018, six of them are valedictorians or salutatorians in Richmond County this year and one is a star student at Jefferson County High School.
In addition to Acree, Felix Scheyer is the valedictorian at the Academy of Richmond County; Blaine Branch is the valedictorian at Westside High School; and Parker Ciamillo is the valedictorian at Aquinas High School. Two salutatorians are Adam Wallace at the Richmond County Career Technical Magnet School and Donny Loebl at Aquinas High School; and Cordie Gillenwater is this year’s star student at Jefferson County High School.
Scheyer, who plans to attend the University of Georgia and study photojournalism, said he’s not sure how his class produced so many top students, but he does believe being part of a small class for eight years at St. Mary’s helped him.
“It was a small, very tight-knit community,” he said. “It really allowed me to be taught one-on-one.”
Many of the students were together from kindergarten through the eighth grade.
Branch went to Immaculate Conception through fifth grade and noticed that competitive spirit as soon as he joined the St. Mary’s ranks as a sixth grader.
“There were a lot of smart kids there,” said Branch, who plans to attend Georgia Tech and major in math. “I wanted to prove myself.”
MORE: Richmond and Columbia County Valedictorians and Salutatorians Class of 2022
When he first found out that there were so many valedictorians this year from his eighth-grade class, Acree, who plans to attend Augusta University on an ROTC scholarship, said he “was amazed and a little surprised, but not really.”
Scheyer said that despite going separate ways from his St. Mary’s friends, he still “keeps in touch with a lot of them. We do meet up.”
Scheyer and Acree gave their valedictory addresses on Tuesday, while Branch is set to graduate at 7 p.m. Thursday at Westside High School stadium.
Aquinas held its graduation on May 22, while Jefferson County High School’s graduation is scheduled for Monday.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the managing editor of The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
