Valedictorian wants to share her title

BELL CITY, Mo. -- Bell City High School Class of 2021 valedictorian Mia Dembowski wants to share her title.

Dembowski is advocating for the school district to change its process of choosing the top senior student. She suggests the valedictorian title be earned by any student who meets certain requirements, not as the student with the absolute highest grade point average (GPA).

Dembowski said opening the title to multiple students emphasizes student learning over student rank and allow more students to earn scholarship opportunities, as some require the recipient be a valedictorian.

Many high schools recognize the valedictorian as the student with the highest GPA. Across the country, the requirements to achieve the title vary. While some use the more traditional GPA scale, others have reimagined the title. Some schools award the title to any student meeting a high GPA, usually a weighted 4.1.

Dembowski took her idea to the school board. Ultimately, board members voted to stick with the traditional process.

More opportunities

Superintendent of Bell City R-II Schools, Matt Asher, acknowledged Dembowski's argument that opening up the title to more students could lead to more scholarship opportunities. He said when the high school principal and counselor looked into the valedictorian scholarships available, they found they also required a certain GPA, standardized testing score and other standards.

While Dembowski's idea was to have the valedictorian title be attainable by a certain high GPA and ACT score, Asher said that if they were to use that model, she still would have been the only valedictorian. "Frankly, there'll be years that some of our graduates don't meet that. So then we would have no valedictorian," he said.

Dembowski and other students said they believe while some students might not reach certain requirements, a more attainable title could motivate the students to work harder.

"I absolutely do believe many people in my class would've worked harder if they believed they had a shot to be valedictorian," Sydney Mitchem said.

Mitchem was ultimately third in the class of 2021 at Bell City High, but said she ended her junior year in first and worked hard in school with the goal of becoming valedictorian.

She said her grades stayed the same, but she didn't have the same amount of time or money to take multiple dual-credit classes, high school and college credit simultaneously, unlike other classmates. The dual-credit courses are worth more GPA points to high school students.

"Many people who were close to the top put in effort. I know people in that class who I truly believe could've been at the top and were smarter than me, but they didn't have the money for those dual-credit classes to help give them a boost," she said.

Fairness

Another reason why Dembowski wants to change the title is also because she thinks the current grading system in place is not fair to students without the ability to take dual-credit courses.

"I hate to say it, but I bought my way into being valedictorian," Dembowksi said, explaining that because she took college classes and worked part-time jobs to pay for them, they added points to her GPA, which not everyone has the circumstances to do. "And I don't think that what I did should have been possible."

Asher said while dual-credit classes weigh more on a student's GPA, there is a scholarship available to students who have a certain GPA and want to take the classes. Dembowski and Mitchem said they were not aware of the scholarship until it was too late.

When asked if the school advertises the scholarship to their students, Asher said, "You know, it's not something that we just say, hey, if you want to take a dual-credit course, we'll pay for it. Because then you know, you got people that don't, wouldn't take it seriously, you know, just sign up for it. So there's a whole bunch of factors that go into that. But, so do we advertise it? I mean, I would say probably not, but I mean ... we've had people take advantage of it."

Asher said he finds the grading system to be fair. He thinks the college classes should weigh more because they are a higher level than other classes offered. He also said administrators also don't always push students to go to college because there are other opportunities.

Overall, Dembowski said she wants to expand college opportunities for other students.

The valedictorian title gave her the opportunity for a full scholarship at Central Methodist University, which recognizes Missouri residents who obtained a minimum 4.0 GPA, a minimum 27 ACT score and valedictorian status.

Bell City High School Class of 2021 consisted of 22 students from a city of about 500 people in northeastern Stoddard County. Dembowski said allowing for more valedictorians could expand opportunities for the students and the community.

"Our town could be so much better if we started sending off kids with maximum opportunity, like how I'm trying to do for myself, and hopefully for future kids," she said. "And we come back to this town, bring in more money, bring in more income, you know, it's just bringing in more, sending it out and bringing it in."

The superintendent agreed.

"There's just two sides to it. You know, I understand where she's coming from," Asher said. "We're going to continue to look at ways to maximize opportunities for students, and if it comes up that her method is the best way to do that, then we will certainly look at trying to do that at a later date."