Time management, perseverance, and learning to go with the flow helped Jessa Barnhill earn the title of salutatorian.
In addition to tough classes, like AP calculus, Barnhill was president of Interact Club, president of the Spanish Honor Society, treasurer of the faith-based group Next Generation Club, and a co-leader of the Fellowship of Christian Students. She played flute and piccolo in the marching band and the concert band, earned district and regional awards in tennis, and was in Talented Theatre’s cast of “Frozen” and “Beauty and the Beast.” In 2022 and 2024, she won state recognition for her poetry, fiction and nonfiction.
“I had to learn how to prioritize my schoolwork and make time for that while also prioritizing my extracurriculars,” Barnhill said. “So, a lot of it was late nights, early mornings. It’s just nice that all my hard work paid off.”
Barnhill graduated summa cum laude and was the school’s 2025 Student of the Year. She is a Posse Scholar and will attend Case Western Reserve University on a full scholarship.
For her graduation speech, Barnhill spoke about being bold in an environment where people crave comfortability. She encouraged her peers to be friends with the people they want to become. She included scripture.
“I got to be on stage and blessed with the opportunity that I was given to give a speech to my peers,” Barnhill said. “That’s a big honor.”
She said her faith guided her as she navigated high school with a heart condition that sometimes limited her activities and made schoolwork more challenging. At one point, she spent six weeks recovering from open heart surgery.
“Through all my challenges, God has really shown his hand through it all,” she said. “The fact that I was able to overcome that and become salutatorian. It just shows God’s grace, and the blessings God has given us.”
Barnhill’s high school experience was marked by her faith, art, music and tennis.
Barnhill joined the tennis team as a freshman. It was her first year playing the sport. By her junior year, her and her doubles partner made the second team all-district. This year, they won first team all-district and second team all-league.
“I’m really proud of myself with how much progress I’ve made,” she said. “That progress is just really encouraging to me in other aspects of my life, too, and my team is so encouraging. I just loved being part of it.”
Barnhill said her talented art teacher, Kristie Gough, and talented music teacher, Sharie Mahler, were influential and supportive.
“[Ms. Mahler] has always enforced the value of practicing and hard work,” Barnhill said. “That’s a big thing that stuck with me. Even when you’re not good at something and it’s hard to push through, keep playing it because eventually you’ll get it, and it’ll pay off.”
If she is accepted into the music school at Case Western, Barnhill said she plans to double major in music and biomedical engineering.
“Who knows where God will lead me,” she said. “But I’m going to take this time to get to know what I am passionate about. Because I know that’s where I’ll thrive.”
