Class of 2022’s Top Honor Students Unveiled at Ceremonies

For each of the three senior class valedictorians that were announced on their respective campuses on Monday, April 25, motivation to get to the top of their class came in different forms.

For valedictorian Frank Fang at ATEMS, it was the previous academic success of his sister that drove his pursuit. For Cooper High School’s No. 1, Meredith Clancy, it was an internal drive. And for Abilene High School valedictorian Brooke Garduno, it was a goal since she started school that pushed her to the top of her class.

The three honor students were announced as their class valedictorian at on-campus ceremonies where the top 25 scholars at both AHS and CHS were revealed, and the top 10% at ATEMS was unveiled.  AHS has approximately 525 in its 134^th graduating class, while Cooper has approximately 400 students in its 61^st class. ATEMS celebrates its 10^th graduating class with 87 seniors.

Abilene ISD commencement exercises are set for Friday, May 27, and Saturday, May 28, at Shotwell Stadium. Abilene High students will graduate at 8 p.m. on Friday, May 27, followed by ATEMS students at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 28. Cooper students will cross the stage at 8 p.m. on Saturday, May 28.

Fang is following in the footsteps of his sister, Faith Fang, who was valedictorian at ATEMS in 2019, and who provided Frank with the motivation he needed to reach the top of the Class of 2022.

“If I didn’t have her ginormous footsteps to follow, I don’t know if I would have reached this goal,” Frank said. “She gave me a lot of tips and pointers on how to study and how to achieve that were very beneficial to me.”

While working to be at the top of his graduating class, Frank said he has become more appreciative of those around him.

“As I’ve gone through this, I’ve tried to be more intentional to the people who invested in me,” Fang said. “For a long time, I put academics ahead of relationships, and that was detrimental. But I’ve been trying to do a better job of investing in those people.”

Fang, who plans to attend Cornell University and study biological engineering, is currently participating in an internship at Abilene Christian University, working with Alzheimer’s and COVID-19 projects. He wants to use his college education for the betterment of his fellow citizens, saying, “I want to do what I can to help with the fabric of humanity.”

When Clancy was asked how her desire to be the valedictorian was fueled, she had a pretty basic answer.

“I don’t know. I guess that was a goal, but I didn’t think it would ever really happen,” said Clancy, who served as a drum major for the Cooper Band, is president of the Student Council, and has also been on the Cooper girls’ powerlifting team. “I was #4 in the class as a freshman, and then moved up to #2 as a junior and that’s when I first began to think I had a chance to get there.”

Like Frank Fang, she had a lot of long nights spent studying to get to the top of the class.

“I had pretty organized study most of the time,” said Clancy, who plans to attend Baylor University to study pre-med. “Of course, there were times when it was just total chaos. A lot of anxiety can build up with tests and homework, and that made for some long days and nights.”

At Abilene High, Garduno used her competitive drive to set her goal early and then drive toward it.

“I’ve wanted to be the valedictorian since I started school,” she said with a smile. “I’ve always been told by my parents to do my best. We have a very competitive family, and it’s been my goal since I was little to be the best. I think it was more of a personal goal to be the absolute best I could be.”

Garduno will be attending Texas A&M University to study motor behavior and pre-physical therapy, one of four Eagles in the graduating class that has plans to attend A&M.

Garduno said that when she found her freshman class rank (first) it “was cool,” but knew she needed to get serious to reach her goal.

“Once I got to No. 1 in the class, it made it harder to hang on because I knew I had to maintain it in order for me to say I had been my best,” she said.