For both Savanna Gibson and Chet Snyder, the journey was more important than the final destination. 

Which isn’t to say the final destination isn’t sweet – the view from the top usually is. 

Both Gibson, Troy High School’s valedictorian for the class of 2026, and Snyder, the salutatorian for the Class of 2026, never set out to graduate at the top of the class four years ago, but both have enjoyed the learning process … and they just happened to pick up a lot of A’s along the way. 

Seriously … a whole lot of A’s. Gibson will graduate from Troy with a 4.731 grade point average, while Snyder will graduate with a 4.708 GPA. 

“I feel that with the type of student I know that I am, for me, I wasn’t getting an A so that I could be valedictorian, I was getting an A because I would have been driven insane if I had gotten a B,” Gibson said. “It would have really bothered me if I had a row of As on my report card or transcript and then I had one B. That would have bothered me more than whether or not I was valedictorian.” 

While it may never have necessarily been the primary goal for Gibson, the daughter of Don and Natalya Gibson, she has been ranked first in her class from the beginning of her freshman year at Troy. It wasn’t until her junior year that the idea of becoming valedictorian became a realistic goal for Gibson.

“I knew that I wanted to be in the top 5 percent of my class, because when I looked at colleges, I saw where I needed to be. It wasn’t necessarily valedictorian per se. I thought it would be cool if that were to happen, but it wasn’t until my junior year when I was first, and I was planning on taking as many college credits as I could because I wanted to make college more affordable and I knew that they would transfer, that I started thinking about it. It put me in first taking all of those extra classes, and I knew if I could keep getting straight As my senior year, that would maintain it. My junior year I realized it could happen, I just needed to maintain what I was doing.”

In addition to graduating at the top of her class, Gibson is the ASTRA club president, a varsity tennis player and  has been a member of: the Troy Tones, National Honor Society, Math Club, Latin Club and Fashion Club. She’s also a Cincinnati Observatory member/volunteer, Teen Leadership Troy graduate, lead intern at Camp Invention and club/assistant middle school tennis coach.

Like Gibson, Snyder never made it a goal of his to graduate near the top of the class. He had been ranked third in the Class of 2026 most of the way through high school, only moving up to second the final semester. 

“It’s pretty cool,” Snyder said. “I didn’t know I moved up until the end of last semester. I had been in third all of high school. I wasn’t going for (salutatorian). I didn’t want to get my hopes up in case I wasn’t salutatorian. I would have been fine with however I ended up, but I’m fine with being salutatorian.”

Snyder, the son of Kurt and Amita Snyder, has participated in cross country, academic quiz team, track and field, Chess Club, orchestra, Student Government, National Honor Society and Fellowship of Christian Athletes at Troy High School. He’s also a member of Nazarene Teen Bible Quizzing and 4-H.

Both Gibson and Snyder were quick to credit their teachers at Troy for helping them achieve all they have accomplished in high school.  

“I feel like the teachers were a huge part of where I am,” Gibson said. “I specifically think about my math teachers that I had; they’ve always been my favorites. Freshman year I had honors geometry with Mr. Hueslkamp, and he would stay in his class during his lunch and he would help student after student with their work. Having teachers who would help you through that transition if you were taking hard classes was helpful. 

“I’ve had so many teachers that outside of school, if I ever needed to talk to them, they would be there for me and help me. Again, like Mrs. Lemkuhl, she met up with me last year to help me with a bunch of ACT stuff, not even course-related stuff. They helped me outside of that. I talked to a bunch of teachers about college and applying to colleges. What kind of extracurriculars do you think I should do? What can I do to prepare myself to apply to certain colleges? They’ve just been really good mentor figures, I’d say.”

Snyder agreed. 

“The teachers have prepared me; the biggest way they’ve prepared me is making learning fun,” he said. “It’s a lot easier for me to learn things if I want to, and the teachers are good at making it so that the students want to learn.”

Both Gibson and Snyder will be attending The Ohio State University in the fall. Gibson plans to major in neuroscience/pre-med, and plans on going to medical school to become a neurologist or getting her PhD and becoming a neuropsychologist. Snyder will major in mathematics.