Top Ten Seniors

Kristina Smith
Opinion Editor

Being in the Top Ten of a class is a very prestigious academic honor, and this year there are some rather odd things about the Top Ten of 2010; it is all female, for the first time in the history of Rangeview, and since there is a two way tie for tenth place, there are now 11 girls as Rangeview High School’s top. The question floating around now is “Where are all the boys?”
“I was actually surprised,” said Senior Tara Barry, third in the class of 2010, “I know a lot of smart guys.”
For years, schools have zoned in on women and minorities because of how poorly they used to do in school. Years ago, males dominated when it came to academics, especially in math and science, which usually put a large percentage of males near the top of their classes. Clearly, things have changed.
“It shows how our school is geared toward females,” said Senior Rachel Zigterman, fourth in her class. Senior BreeAnna Lesher, eighth in the class of 2010, agrees.
“Education is sort of biased towards girls,” said Lesher. “Guys are kind of missing out.”
“It used to be that we couldn’t get young ladies in the top, but now it seems our focus needs to shift to the guys,” said Principal Pam Turner. Not that the young men of RHS aren’t perfectly capable of being at the top of their class. Last years valedictorian was male and for the class of 2010, the first person after the Top Ten is Johann Duran, proving that the boys can do it as well.
The question that still remains is why? Why are the ladies now dominating the areas that always belonged to young men? Perhaps it is a fear if public speaking.
“I’m just happy I don’t have to give a speech at graduation,” said an oddly relieved Duran, twelfth in the class of 2010.
“It might have something to do with the weighting too,” Principal Turner added. After carefully reviewing the schedules of the Top Ten, Raider Revue staff found that all of these young women are enrolled in AP and college courses. Tho Nguyen, one of the two young women ranked tenth, will even be graduating with her associates. Could this have something to do with it?
“Sports Grades aren’t weighted,” said Nguyen, “so most boys don’t have weighted GPAs.” Areas such as Performing Arts, Fine Arts, Gym, and other elective classes aren’t weighed therefore in a way they can bring down your GPA.
“These classes shouldn’t be hurting you,” said Principal Turner. She plans on proposing a change to the way classes are weighted to re-balance everyone’s GPA.
Another factor that could be motivating the young ladies is the Repression. With this economy, meeting the expenses of college seem even more impossible than before and without an ethnic background, scholarships aren’t so easy to come by. However, if a young Caucasian is the valedictorian, or even in the top five percent of their class, then suddenly paying for a college education seems a lot more possible.
Besides the fact that there are no boys in the top, one other thing has caught the school’s attention and that is the lack of diversity in 2010's Top.
“It’s kind of cool, but it’s not diverse,” said Senior Samantha Jackson, fifth in her class. “It doesn’t really represent our school.” Besides being an all-female line up, ten out of the eleven girls are Caucasian.
“It feels kind of awkward, but it just happened that way,” said Nguyen, the only non-white member of the Top. “This year I feel really singled out, but it’s ok. It [the diversity] doesn’t show in our Top Ten, but it shows in our school.”
“Last year was so diverse,” said Valedictorian Katherine “Katie” Aker, referring to the Top Ten of 2009. “It’s weird having such a similar group, but we worked hard enough so obviously we deserve to be in the Top Ten.”
One thing all the girls had to say was whether they expected to be at the top of 2010 or not, they are all proud to see that their hard work has been recognized.
“I didn’t think I was going to be in the Top Ten,” said Jackson, “It wasn’t my main goal coming into high school.”
“It’s just a number,” said Zigterman, “it doesn’t define who I am. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a big deal.”
“I think it’s more about who you are, what you want to do in life, and your values,” said Senior Amy Johnson, seventh in her class. “In the past 40 years, women have begun breaking out of their shells and I think this is a testament to their strength.”
“Plus 5 out of 11 girls are blonde, so everyone has to lay off the dumb-blonde jokes,” said Johnson while laughing with self-proclaimed “screaming feminist” Senior Alexa Brooks, sixth in the class of 2010 who is enjoying the concept of “Girls conquering the school.”
“We’re defeating the stereotypes,” said fellow blonde, Rachel Knoshaug, the other young lady ranked tenth.
“I think it’s neat to see how far women have come in our society,” said Salutatorian Jenna Reynolds.
“It’s an honor to have that title,” said Aker. “I hope I represent my class very well.”
They may not be the most diverse bunch of girls, but they have certainly earned their spots. Congratulations ladies.