Valedictorian's perfect attendance record since Pre-K earns her a $430k scholarship

The feeling of getting up for school can range from “Doesn’t bother me” to “This sucks, I need 3 more hours of sleep”, depending on who you are. Our 6-7 a.m wake up times always felt a couple hours too early. Can you imagine doing that every school day without missing a single day?

Hold that thought, because this girl did just that.

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Ashanti Palmer from Washington did what most of us deem impossible. She’s been present for every single school day since Pre-k. That’s, give or take, 17 years.

Here most of us are, struggling to even get perfect attendance for one school year.

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Meanwhile, Ashanti sits upon her throne of perfect attendance and laughs at our weakness.

Jokes aside, taking a day or two off because you’re sick, injured or not mentally in the best place is normal. It happens to the best of us, and it’s almost definitely happened to Ashanti too.

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Her perfect record doesn’t mean she’s never been sick or depressed. The takeaway point is how it speaks volumes about her persistence and drive, and it’s nothing short of inspiring.

A spectacular achievement like that deserves recognition of the same caliber, and good thing she got just that.

That flawless attendance, in addition to her likely just being a great student on her own, helped her rack up $430,000 dollars in scholarships. She’s putting that into pursuing a biomedical engineering degree at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for another 4 years. You go, girl!

Even more amazingly, Palmer wasn’t even actively setting perfect attendance as her goal. She’d just unknowingly never missed a day, realized this in 10th grade, and sought to keep the streak going.

Her school’s superintendent, Kenneth R. Hamilton, appropriately summed it up in this one sentence.

“Ashanti’s achievements in the Mount Vernon schools have been nothing short of remarkable”.

As one of the school’s authoritative figures, Mr. Hamilton was a firsthand witness to Palmer’s feat. He’s got way more reason than most of us to be impressed.

“We strive to ensure our students graduate from here college- and career-ready, and Ashanti is a testament to that goal.” – Hamilton continued.

Though one wonders what could possibly motivate someone to never miss a day of school, especially for as long as Palmer.

Well, who better to tell us the answer than her?

“I’ve never had a bad teacher, my teachers made it easy for me, made me enthusiastic to go to school.”

There’s quite a lot to take away from that statement. We’ve all had that one dreadful teacher who just made us loathe a subject, haven’t we? Seems as though making us want to go to school is a huge factor, isn’t it?

Mean and unpleasant teachers exist, that’s just the truth.

They may be exception and not the norm, but boy is it the worst when you end up with one.

Here’s hoping more than a few such teachers heard Ms. Palmer’s words.

Ms. Palmer was fortunate enough to not have any such people overseeing her in the classroom. Learning is supposed to be fun, after all. Her consistent and perfect attendance of classes thanks to her teachers sells that point really well.

She went on to speak about her triumphant feat during a press release.

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“Being named valedictorian feels good because it shows that all the hard work I’ve put in over the years has paid off, and that effort is being celebrated in a big way.”

But she wasn’t lacking in self-awareness. Ashanti didn’t hesitate to acknowledge how big of a role circumstances and help can play.

The valedictorian went on to say that her achievement was news worthy for a reason – it ain’t exactly the kind of thing students should be expected to do. With her wording as clear as possible, she highlighted that comparing your progress to someone else is a recipe for killing confidence.

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“When you compare your achievements to someone else’s you’re only creating an envious atmosphere for yourself, and growth cannot happen in one.”

This valedictorian’s feat is prime motivation material, as are her words of advice for people walking similar paths.

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You may not be able to get a perfect attendance streak quite like Ashanti’s, but what you can do is your best.

Do you think you know someone who might need to hear some of these words of success? Then tap that share button and give them something to read!

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

Source: [ABC news 7 NY, CNN, Mount Vernon City School district]

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