For graduating seniors this life passage brings an excitement never forgotten.
To valedictorian David Elliot Kline, 18, and salutatorian Aynsley Kay Young, 18, go the top honors as the students with the highest grade-point averages at Belton High School.
Kline said he was called out of class to a meeting where Principal Kathy Cooke told the top 10 their rankings. He said he knew he was a top contender so he sensed what the meeting would be about.
“I certainly had a clue and was hoping that’s what it would be about,” Kline said, grinning.
Miss Young said Kline was lucky enough to be in a class with several top contenders so when they were called out they all knew.
“I was in a class by myself,” she said. “When they called me I thought, ‘what did I do wrong?’”
Miss Young said she was baffled. “But when I saw all the others then I knew it was OK,” she said, laughing.
She said she was pleased to have been named salutatorian. She said her parents let her know how proud they were when she went home.
Kline talked about memorable events during his senior year. He said in physics class he designed and built a car powered by a mousetrap.
“It seemed like I worked on it forever - it was at least 20 hours,” Kline said. “But someone else brought a piece of balsa wood powered by mousetrap and it went twice as far as mine.”
He said marching band was his extracurricular activity. Practice lasted three hours every afternoon after school from mid-August until December. He said a lot of good memories come from horsing around in the stands during practice.
“You get 200 high school students in the stands and give each a band instrument and sometimes they are going to horse around.”
Kline said he does well in both the humanities and science, but science and math are his favorites. He took two periods of calculus rather than one to get more points for class ranking.
He will start at Texas A&M University in the fall majoring in mechanical engineering. He said that’s a good fit for him.
During the summer he will work at Gatti’s Pizza Parlor in Belton.
Miss Young said she started at point guard on the varsity basketball team and served as student council president for three years. She was also a member of the National Honor Society her junior and senior years.
“I enjoyed all my classes in general,” she said. “In anatomy class we got to dissect a cat. We had to skin it. That was gruesome.”
She said although she enjoyed biology she did not like the sciences that much.
“I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer,” she said. “I’ll go to Baylor in the fall and I’m leaning toward pre-law.”
This summer she will work for a law firm.
All top 10 students were feted at a luncheon in their honor May 22 at Cheeves Brothers Restaurant in downtown Temple. Hosts were Joseph Bray of Compass Bank, and John and Suzanne Kiella of Kiella Home Builders.
Dr. Vivian Baker, superintendent of schools, attended.
Graduation will be at 8 p.m. Thursday, June 4, at the Bell County Expo Center.
