Six seniors are being honored as valedictorians at graduation on June 6. Seniors Jackie Bollinger, Alexa Andre, Sohail Qazi, Ariana Keyser, Alisa Monda and Wendy Gong have all kept a perfect 4.0 grade point average during high school.

“Since the beginning of freshman year it was just a goal that I could work towards. Like the ultimate challenge for me,” Andre said.

Next year, she will be attending Brown University for a Pre-Med degree.

“It feels like all my hard work over the years paid off in the end,” Monda said.

Monda will be attending Gonzaga University to become a nurse practitioner.

English teacher Mary Symonds said this number has dropped from the past year. The Class of 2013 boasted 10 or 11 valedictorians, she said.

Senior Marit McQuaig, Honor Society treasurer, will announce the valedictorians, as well as “the total amount of AP credits, foreign language credits, and Running Start credits,” Symonds said. “Usually, it’s the secretary [of Honor Society] that announces the credits, but the secretary is a valedictorian so [McQuaig] will be doing it.”

Most credit their hard work, and long hours studying to keep their grades up.

“Especially freshman and sophomore year I tried to make homework a priority. I just had the right motivation for a long time that helped me,” Qazi said.

He will be attending California Polytechnic State University to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Biology.

Gong had monetary motivations.

“I had a bet with my brother that if I could keep a 4.0 all four years he would give me $400,” Gong said. “I’m excited for my $400.”

Gong will be attending Dartmouth College to pursue a Pre-Med degree.

They are proud, but don’t view it as a big deal.

“I’ve kind of realized it doesn’t really matter. As long as you have about a 3.8 it is all kind of the same,” Bollinger said. “I think [my GPA] was taken into consideration, but [colleges] probably looked at my SAT/ACT scores more.”

She will be attending University of Arizona on an academic scholarship.

“[Having a 4.0] doesn’t reflect how smart someone is. I’m not any smarter than people with a 3.9. It’s not that big of a deal,” Andre said.

“It wasn’t a huge deal to me, I just wanted to get good grades,” Keyser said.

Next year, she’ll be leaving in mid- to late August for a Rotary Youth Exchange in Belgium. When she returns, she will be attending University of California, Berkeley to study archaeology.