top two both participated in STEM Academy at CTC

BY TODD MARTIN SPECIAL TO THE HERALD

This year’s top two Ellison High School Class of 2022 seniors are Killeen natives who labored academically to rise to the top and found creative outlet and close friends in fine arts.

Brianne Gaines is the Ellison High School Class of 2022 valedictorian and Kimberly Niemiec is the salutatorian.

“It feels pretty good. It’s exciting,” said Gaines of finishing at the top of her class. “I’ve accomplished what I’ve been working toward the past three years.”

She attended Reeces Creek and Timber Ridge elementary schools, Liberty Hill and Smith middle schools and Ellison High School, where she split time at Central Texas College as a STEM Academy student.

Gaines also made time to participate heavily in technical theater and was student council president and National Honor Society president.

“I’ve always taken the hardest course work, all honors, AP and dual credit,” she said.

“I think it was pure force of will,” she said, explaining her method of academic success. “I put in long hours, a lot of sleepless nights finishing essays and assignments. I’ve sacrificed a lot taking college classes.”

Very often, Gaines said, it was the evening work behind the stage in the Ellison theater department that kept her going.

“Being in theater was daunting at first,” she said, “but it helped me to break out of my shell. It gave me a support group and most of my close friends.”

The class salutatorian said she was nervous about speaking at graduation in front of her peers.

“Overall, I was really scared because I have to speak,” she said.

“I was excited, too. I’ve been ranked second and third and it felt good to be second.”

Niemiec attended Timber Ridge

Elementary School and Liberty Hill Middle School prior to moving on to Ellison High School.

She has been part of the KISD STEM Academy, taking classes online and in-person at CTC during the school year and in the summer.

She also excelled in the school band as a French horn player and as the brass colonel, a leadership post she did not seek out.

“I had a lot of good support,” she said, pointing out two high-achieving sisters, as well as friends in academic circles and the directors and close friends in band.

“It was humbling my freshman year to start at the bottom,” she said of band. “Now, I’m first chair and have had solos. I was afraid to take charge, but others saw something in me, and they made me apply. I came out of my shell.”

Ellison High School graduation is set for 2 p.m. Saturday, May 28 at the Bell County Expo Center.

Congratulations, Ellison High Class of 2022!