Valedictorian reaches academic summit

Greenbrier High School senior Rebecca Noblett reached the pinnacle of high school academic success when she was named her school's STAR student and 2008 valedictorian.

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In a class of more than 450 students, Rebecca's scores are impressive.

"Well, I knew I didn't do as well as I could have," said Rebecca of the SAT, the test that is used as the basis for determining each school's STAR student. "But I hadn't heard of anyone with a higher score than me."

Rebecca is the daughter of Les and Pam Noblett, of Evans. She chose her former Advanced Placement U.S. history teacher Tracy Roden as her STAR teacher.

"She put so much into helping us with all the material and studying for the AP tests," she said, adding that Roden often held study sessions outside of school.

At Greenbrier, Rebecca is co-captain of both the math and varsity swim teams and is a member of the school's Model U.N. team. She has held the top spot in her class since her junior year, so the honor of valedictorian was no surprise.

"I've been ranked first for the last year-and-a-half," she said. "I'm already preparing my speech."

Rebecca said she'll speak about working hard to achieve goals.

"I'm good at public speaking," she said.

She isn't nervous about talking in front of her peers and guests during the school's graduation ceremony.

Among other things Rebecca is good at is speaking foreign languages. She has taken Spanish and French classes and recently learned to speak Portuguese.

"I like foreign languages," she said. "I taught myself how to speak Portuguese for my senior project."

Rebecca said the language is similar to Spanish and she knew that if she was going to teach herself a new language, it needed to be fairly easy.

Rebecca plans to enroll at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the fall and major in chemistry. She will use her degree to pursue a career in pharmaceutical research.

"I knew I wanted to go into chemistry and it's the best state school in science," she said.

Her experiences taking a medication with lots of side effects led to her career path.

Eventually, Rebecca said, she'd like to travel and possibly participate in a study-abroad program.