The Cobb County School District on Tuesday announced the Class of 2019 valedictorians and salutatorians, and students from East Cobb schools had some of the highest grade-point averages in the county.
Walton’s William Ellsworth topped all seniors with a GPA of 4.875, and he’s headed to Stanford University. Walton’s salutatorian, Daniel Shu, has a GPA of 4.833, and he’s off to Vanderbilt.
All of the East Cobb vals and sals had GPAs in excess of 4.6, and many of those are going to Georgia Tech. The countywide average is 4.66 for the Class of 2019, which numbers more than 8,000 in 16 Cobb high schools.
CCSD said 94 percent of those graduates will be getting their diplomas on time, which is a record, and 75 percent are college-bound.
Cobb graduates have earned more than $118 million in scholarships, outside of the HOPE and Zell Mill scholarship programs. A total of $12 million in scholarships is going to Pope graduates.
Graduation started Tuesday afternoon for Kell. The other East Cobb schools’ graduation schedules are listed below, along with their valedictorians, salutatorians, GPAs, college choices and intended majors.
Kell (Tuesday, 3:30 p.m., KSU)
Valedictorian —Annabelle Alejandra Colmenares Mayz, 4.6.14, Stanford, material science and engineering
Salutatorian—Thomas Papageorge, 4.6, Georgia Tech, mathematics
Lassiter (Thursday, 2:30 pm., KSU)
Valedictorian—Kevin Barnard Goshay, 4.793, Harvard, applied mathematics
Salutatorian—Dennis Gregory Goldenberg, 4.759, Georgia Tech, mathematics
Pope (Friday, 7 p.m., KSU)
Valedictorians—Nicole Yoojin Kang, 4.783, Georgia Tech, biology; and Edward Charles Kokan, 4.783, Georgia Tech, aerospace engineering
Salutatorian—Karen Sizhe Li, 4.75, Georgia Tech, biomedical engineering
Sprayberry (Saturday, 7 p.m., KSU)
Valedictorians—Yllona Maria Coronado, 4.656, Georgia Tech, biomedical engineering; and Anusha Kayastha, 4.656, Georgia Tech, neuroscience
Salutatorians—Samuel August Knobbe, 4.563, Georgia Tech, chemical engineering; and Matthew Robert Starker, 4.563, University of Georgia, finance
Walton (Friday, 10 a.m., KSU)
Valedictorian—William Ellsworth, 4.839, Stanford
Salutatorian—Daniel Shu, 4.803, Vanderbilt
Wheeler (Wednesday, 6:30 p.m., Wildcat Arena)
Valedictorian—Rucha Gharpure, 4.742, Cornell, computer science
Salutatorian—Keshav Shenoy, 4.727, Georgia Tech
The entire group of East Cobb valedictorians and salutatorians is shown in the slideshow below.
Related stories
- Georgia Scholars include 13 students from East Cobb schools
- 4 Walton students named U.S. Presidential Scholar semifinalists
- East Cobb National Merit Scholarship recipients announced
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
@Wendy Parker – Exactly. Naming a person the valedictorian indicates that he/she had the highest GPA and that the salutatorian had the second highest GPA. Publishing the actual numbers adds nothing to the story and only allows for there to be a false comparison across the schools. Just saying.
It doesn’t make any sense to name vals and sals and not indicate the GPAs. I don’t understand the objection to this.
There’s been no attempt to provide a “false comparison,” but to simply list the scores provided by the school district.
These are obviously all outstanding and accomplished young men and women. Congrats to each of them. I think it is nice to honor them here, but what is the point in publishing their GPAs? They are not comparable among different schools, but this makes it appear as though they are. In the magnet program at Wheeler, for example, they cap the number of AP classes you can earn 5 quality points for because they want the students to pursue coursework they find interesting and relevant to their career interests rather than encouraging them to take all AP courses just to inflate their GPAs. I believe that should be applauded despite the fact that it makes the top students at Wheeler appear to be “below” some of the top students at some of the other schools strictly on the basis of GPA. We’ve made academics ridiculously competitive for these children already. There’s no need to further that with what gets disclosed publicly. I am sure this was not even considered when these GPAs were published, but I think it should be given some consideration. Best of luck to all of the Class of 2019!
The GPA scores are mentioned because that is how valedictorians and salutatorians are determined.