Four years after her brother earned the rank of valedictorian of Columbia High School, Myers Foxworth will now have some bragging rights of her own as the top student of the 2023 class.
Foxworth never strived to be No. 1 in her class and instead focused on just being the best version of herself, but she said it’s an absolute honor to represent Columbia High School as its valedictorian.
“It definitely is a surprise. Our grade is very competitive, not in the sense of being competitive with each other — we all work together — but we have a really good grade that’s full of academic talent,” she said. “I always knew I wanted to be towards the top of the class, but it was never my set goal to be No. 1. It was a nice reward for myself to be the best version of myself academically.”
Columbia High School created some intrigue for how the students learned of their class rank. Throughout their high school years, they never knew where they ranked among their peers. Then when it came time for the school to divulge that information, the top-10 students were all called to the office at the same time. One by one they went into the principal’s office and were handed an envelope. They had to open the envelope and read to learn where they finished among their peers.
When Foxworth opened her envelope, her jaw dropped in shock.
“I couldn’t believe any of it,” she said. “Then the fact that there were two ties, that just shows how academically competitive our grade is.”
A big reason why Foxworth was so successful and able to become valedictorian was all of the advanced and extra courses she took, leading her weighted GPA to be an exceptional 6.3.
Ole Miss has been a family tradition for the Foxworths as Foxworth’s parents both attended Ole Miss and both her older brothers attended the Oxford university. She will be the next in line when she attends the University of Mississippi in the fall, and she plans to major in journalism and minor in French.
“I applied to a couple of other schools, but I’ve always been drawn to Ole Miss,” she said.
Foxworth has her sights set on fulfilling her dream as a sports journalist. She has played sports most of her life, and both her brothers starred on the fields of Columbia High School as well. She has a love of writing and loves watching sports with her entire family, so sports journalism will combine two of her favorite things into one. She said her dream is to be an on-field correspondent for football.
She has been able to get some broadcast journalism experience through Paw Prints, which airs a weekly broadcast on Monday mornings in the school. Foxworth said she has absolutely loved being a part of it.
Columbia and Marion County are tight-knit communities, and Foxworth said CHS is the same way, which is what she loved about her high school years.
“Everybody is so close as a school,” she said. “You can really see it through sports, how everyone comes together to support the community around us, how the community comes together to support one team or one school. It’s really nice to see that. A lot of my favorite memories come from Friday nights where you can see that community involvement in the school.”
Foxworth thanked her entire family, especially her brothers, Nathan and Harrison. She said while she didn’t necessarily aim to be like them, their accomplishments pushed her and gave her something to strive for.
“My family has always supported me in everything I do academically and outside of school,” she said.
While Foxworth has always been extroverted, she said she is a bit nervous about her valedictorian speech. She’s less worried about the crowd of people’s families in attendance but has some uneasiness about her classmates looking up at her. She hopes once she’s up on stage, her nerves will fade away.
There can be a lot of pressure students face during their high school years, but Foxworth said younger students should strive to accomplish goals for themselves, not other people.
Foxworth is the daughter of Drew and Allison Foxworth.
