Emma Gunn and Jonathan McCoy are Clark-Pleasant’s valedictorian and salutatorian for the Class of 2024. Jayden Kennett | Daily Journal
Clark-Pleasant’s valedictorian and salutatorian want to build their own identities outside of academics and school.
Valedictorian Emma Gunn and salutatorian Jonathan McCoy both have personal connections to education. They want people to know that despite shadows cast over them, they are making ways for themselves. Gunn had a 4.35 grade point average and McCoy had a 4.29 GPA. Gunn will attend Indiana University to study biochemistry while McCoy will attend Franklin College to study actuarial science and applied mathematics.
Between sports, student government and 4-H, sometimes Gunn doesn’t know how she manages it all, she joked. Gunn is on the high school track team and played softball until her senior year, she said. She’s participated in 4-H for nearly a decade, transitioning from showing animals to being an ambassador. Being involved in so many extracurriculars has allowed her to meet a community of diverse people and perspectives, she said.
“I don’t want to be surrounded by people who are all exactly like me because that’s not interesting,” Gunn said. “It’s allowed me to just have a group of people around me where we all have different ideas, and we’re just different people. Like we’re all going different places in life, and that’s kind of the great thing about it.”
When she was a freshman, Gunn focused a lot on making sure she did things “perfectly,” she said. This year, though, she’s realized it’s more about having fun than doing it perfectly. Gunn has always felt that academics were what defined her. As a teacher’s daughter, it was pretty much natural for others to define her the same way. Gunn wants to move away from that expectation and focus more on herself as a person by being involved everywhere she can.
Getting involved in different clubs, activities and sports helps people become better people, she said. For her speech, she wants to focus less on academics and more on the high school experience. Everything is not as serious as it seems, she said.
“I really want to talk about not focusing too much on the bad things in high school because when you look back on it, you’re gonna see the good parts, the memories,” Gunn said. “You’re not gonna remember the bad things people said or the friends who were mean, [it is] having a good experience, remembering a good experience and making the most of it.”
For McCoy, has gone by the shortened version of his name, Jon. Now though, McCoy wants to introduce himself as Jonathan as a way to mark a new chapter of his life.
McCoy’s brother, Robert, was valedictorian two years ago. While he feels like he’s following in his brother’s footsteps, he wants people to know that he’s his own entity outside of being a little brother.
“He’s definitely cast a really big shadow and I’ve been trying to climb out of it for most of my life,” McCoy said. “I would go into classes and people would be like ‘Oh you’re RJ’s little brother’ and I’m like ‘No, I’m Jon.’”
McCoy helped start a volleyball club for men that is now sanctioned by the Indiana High School Athletic Association, he said. He hopes underclassmen will get involved where they can as he did to make the most of high school.
His freshman year, McCoy spent most days after school playing video games, he said. When he started getting into sports, he developed a community of friends that he’s still close with.
“All my friends have come from things that I’ve gotten involved with in schooling and it’s just very important if you want to have a good high school experience, get into clubs, get into sports and kind of just enjoy it,” McCoy said. “Enjoy it while you’ve got it. You might hate it, but by the time you graduate, you’re going to miss a lot of it.”
