TOP OF THE CLASS STATUS

When Theresa “Chantel” Boney attended the Alcovy High School celebration for its top 10 graduates, for a while, the Alcovy senior was just enjoying the countdown.

“I knew I’d probably like top five in the class because I’d talked with my counselor recently,” Boney said. “Maybe I’d be ranked No. 2 or drop down to No. 3, but that’s all I was thinking.”

The top 10 academic achievers at Alcovy were being named for recognition and applause in descending order, starting at No. 10 and counting down from there. By the time the count got past No. 3 and Boney’s name had yet to be called, she was thinking her prediction about being second in the class was about to come true.

Then, No. 2 was called. And it wasn’t Boney. But when her name was called as tops in her class, well, the moisture from her eyes told the story. “I just started crying tears of joy,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it was happening for me. It just means that hard work pays off.”

To be sure, Boney has always been a top academic student who intentionally put herself in positions to be stiffly challenged in the classroom. But even she’ll acknowledge that being valedictorian was never on her radar.

“When I started high school, I wanted to be an honor graduate, and I knew I could do that,” Boney said. “I knew it because of the rigorous classes I took in middle school to prepare me, and even taking some high school level classes in middle school. And as we got closer to the end of my junior year, I knew my grade point average was high, so I figured I had a good chance to finish top 10, but I never thought I would accomplish this.”

While Boney doesn’t yet know her final GPA, as year-ending grades have yet to be completed, she does know that it’ll be above a 4.0. But it’s not just all classroom and books for her. The Alcovy grad-to-be has prided herself on being a well-rounded individual.

Aside from her academic prowess, Boney was the captain of Alcovy’s swim team over the last two years. She was a national semifinalist for Genes in Space, which is a global science competition inviting middle and high school students to propose DNA experiments that address a space exploration problem. She was a leading officer in the Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) club, and she’s also Nocti Certified in biotechnology. `

No wonder, then, that the two biotech classes she took while in the Newton College and Career Academy’s STEM program, were her favorites over the last four years.

It’s all prepared her all for her next chapter, which includes attending Louisiana State University in the fall and majoring in animal science.

“LSU was one of the first schools I toured, and they invited me out for a scholarship,” she said. “I earned a scholarship early and after being accepted, I received more scholarship money, and that’s what really made me choose that school.”

Another factor is the distance. Baton Rouge, Louisiana is about 560 miles from Covington — an eight hour car ride — and that’s just far enough for Boney to scratch her itch for discovering what’s beyond her own backyard.

“I definitely I like the distance, and I wanted to choose a school that was far enough away for me to be able to explore a little bit,” she said. “I’ll be back for Christmas, but I’m definitely excited to go and explore and see what’s out there.”

Boney said a big lesson learned from her high school successes is figuring out how to cope with stress. “Sometimes, I forget how much I do in school and outside of school,” she said. “I learned that you have to manage stress and sometimes things did get stressful when you’ve got tests and assignments and so many things due at the same time.”

But her message of advice and encouragement to any students coming behind her would be to work hard at conquering the stress early.

“Ask for help and don’t stress too much,” she said. “Sometimes it’s okay to stop and take a break and let people know that you need a little help.”

For her, her biggest support system was her family, and she says she’ll always appreciate and love them for it, and she expects that support to remain even as she goes away for college.

“My parents never really stressed that I had to get all A’s,” she said. “But they always would say, ‘do your very best, and do as good as you can and be as good as you can be.’ So with them, any time I was struggling, even if they couldn’t help me, they’d find someone who could.”