Bleem, Burke, Wright top Twin Rivers High School Class of 2019

Twin Rivers High School senior Blake Bleem has always been an A Honor Roll student and made good grades.

Bleem

Once getting a taste of academic success, he decided to keep it going throughout his school years, ultimately landing him the top spot among the TRHS class of 2019 as valedictorian.

“I was not really working to try to get number one, that wasn’t a big deal for me,” Bleem said. “I just wanted to get the A’s and good grades and I guess I got number one.”

Burke

Though his own desire to succeed, support from those close to him and teachers, Bleem said he wanted to follow in his brother’s footsteps of making good grades.

“I don’t like losing so that’s probably where my desire to succeed comes from and I’m pretty competitive,” he said. “I started with good grades, so I decided I had to keep it up.”

To maintain his high academic status with a final GPA of 10.98, Bleem said free time is the biggest item he had to sacrifice to study and do homework.

Wright

Bleem said he will remember all the friends he has made while at Twin Rivers High School and the fun things he got to experience with them.

The son of Michael and Stacie Bleem said “math in general” was his favorite subject in school and enjoyed Mr. Hahn’s calculus class.

“He is fun and made calculus fun,” he said.

Upon graduation, Bleem plans to attend Southeast Missouri State University and major in computer science, then most likely go into programing, he said.

The honor of TRHS class of 2019 salutatorian will be shared between two students this year.

Hannah Burke and Joseph Wright both earned a GPA of 10.80.

“It’s an honor to be second in the class,” Burke said. “It’s kind of surprising, I thought I had a chance, but I wasn’t sure I would get it. It could have been anyone else so it’s surprising, but I’m really happy about it.”

Burke said she pushed herself for academic success because she knew she could achieve it.

She also credits her parents, Jason and Renee Burke, and friends for helping keep her “on top of everything” and encouraging her along the way.

“I wanted to succeed to make my parents proud, but also for myself because I knew that I could do it,” Burke said.

To maintain such a high academic status, Burke said she sacrificed a lot of sleep through the years.

“Staying up late studying and getting stuff done takes up a lot of your time, but it’s worth it in the end,” she said.

Upon graduation, Burke plans to attend the University of Missouri to obtain a bachelor’s degree in psychology. From there, she would like to become a forensic scientist.

Burke said her favorite teacher while at Twin Rivers High School was Amanda Long and she also enjoyed AP World History, AP Literature, psychology and sociology.

Burke added she will remember making memories with her friends the most from her high school experience.

“Just having a good time, laughing and making jokes with each other and being goofy,” she said.

Wright also said it was an honor to be second in the 2019 class.

“It means a lot to me to be named co-salutatorian and to share the honor with one of the smartest people who I know, Hannah Burke,” Wright said. “So many times in high school I felt like I didn’t want to work on homework or study for a test, but it feels good for all my hard work to pay off in this way.”

Wright’s academic success did not come without the help of his parents, Steven and Nicole Wright, as well as his teachers, he said.

Wright said his parents told him their biggest regret was not trying as hard as they could in high school and the beginning of their college careers.

“Because of this, my parents have challenged me to take more difficult classes and to also be involved in multiple extracurricular activities,” he said. “Both have prepared me for my future college aspirations.”

Wright’s teachers also really helped him understand the curriculum, he said.

“If I didn’t understand it, they would teach me on their free time and help me truly make sense of the very challenging lessons,” he added.

Wright also thanks his church family at Green Forest Church of Christ for all the love and support they always show him.

A certain motto from his parents has helped push Wright to work hard academically with school and physically with baseball.

“My parents taught me if you work hard and try your best, the outcome won’t matter because you will have done all you can do,” he said.

One sacrifice Wright has made to maintain his high academic status was little alone time to collect his thoughts.

“This hasn’t bothered me very much because in a house with three sisters, you don’t get much alone time,” he added.

The amount of fun had while at Twin Rivers is what Wright said he will remember most from his high school experience.

“From dad jokes to multiple inside jokes that are so dumb other people outside of school wouldn’t understand them, my classmates and I loved to laugh it up during any free time we had,” he said.

While in the classroom, Wright said his favorite course was AP World History with Mrs. Long because he had so much fun.

“Mrs. Long created a lot of projects for us to do, like doing a “Worst Leader March Madness Bracket” to see which leader in the 21st century was the baddest of the bad and recreating the Scramble for Africa with groups representing different European Countries,” he said.

Upon graduation Wright will be attending Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas to major in political science and history. He then plans to look into careers as either a political consultant, historian or history teacher.

“I would like to say congratulations to every graduate in my class at Twin Rivers,” he said. “So many of them have worked very hard to get scholarships and get into good colleges and I truly think my classmates will have great and prosperous futures.”