They're No. 1: Alex Harris, Jackson High School valedictorian

Alex Harris

School: Jackson High School

Hometown: Jackson

Parents: Lisa Stearns and Don Harris

Post-graduation plans: I'm going to attend The Ohio State University to major in mathematics and Japanese or Korean.

High school activities: I was in French Club for two years and Academic Team for three years.

Honors: I won the mathematics department award, the AP Biology award and the Sons of Liberty award.

GPA: 11.586/11.0

Favorite high school memory: Without a doubt, my most treasured memories of high school come from Academic Team meets. The meets were fun, challenging and a great way to hang out with friends. We also had a tradition of eating Chinese food after most of the meets.

Favorite teacher and why: My favorite teacher is my AP calculus teacher, Mrs. Middleton. Her cheerful attitude and love of math made her class easily the one I looked forward to the most each day. Before I took her class, I didn't find math all that interesting; however, by taking calculus with her, my love of math has greatly increased.

Role model: My role model is my mom. She works extremely hard every day at her job and at the house, while still having time to devote her time to family and church.

Summer plans: I plan on continuing working at Cape West 14 Cine and hanging out with my friends and family.

What will you miss about high school? I think the thing I will miss most about high school is the small-sized classes. There were a few classes I took with less than 10 people, and I always thought those were the more fun and friendly classes. I think I will also miss the familiarity of seeing the same people each day.

Advice to incoming seniors: If you want good grades, I suggest you do your homework each night. Also, don't try to speed through your senior year; it goes much faster than you think it will.

How will you make the world a better place? I think I will be a kind person who will always work to help those in need. I think the world is always in need of more people like that.

What your prop says about you: I chose my "Teach Yourself Korean" book as my prop because I think it really shows how much I love foreign languages, traveling, and how I want to expand my horizons by seeing the world.