CHS names Leeper, Halsey as top grads for ’24

Clarendon High School has announced the top students for the Class of 2024 are Toby Leeper and Avery Halsey.

The top students will be recognized along with other graduating members of the class during commencement exercises at the Harned Sisters Fine Arts Center at Clarendon College next Friday, May 24.

Toby Leeper is the class Valedictorian with a weighted grade point average of 6.16. He is the son of Timothy and Catrina Leeper. He has attended Clarendon CISD since his kindergarten year. He was named to the A Honor Roll with a 4.0 unweighted GPA for all four years of high school.

Toby qualified for Regional UIL in science, mathematics, and current events over all four years. He was a state academic alternate in science in his junior year along with earning the National Rural and Small Town Scholars award. Toby was a National Merit Commended Scholar and was a member of the National Honor Society. He was a co-founding member of the Babble-On Historical Society, among several other distinctions.

Toby plans to attend Texas State University as a Terry Scholar immediately following high school, where he will major in Aquatic Biology, aiming to achieve a postgraduate degree to work in the research field and volunteer for conservation efforts.

Avery Halsey is the Salutatorian with a weighted GPA of 6.01. She is the daughter of Matt and Stephanie Halsey and has attended Clarendon CISD all four years of high school. She has been involved in UIL Academics, qualifying for the regional meet all four years and attending the UIL State Academic Meet in copy and editing her junior and senior year.

Avery was also involved in the gifted and talented program, student council, and was a class representative all four years. She was inducted into NHS her sophomore year and served as president her senior year. She was involved in service projects such as Snack Pak 4 Kids, the Food Bank, Clarendon Senior Center, and the Shattered Dreams drunk driving awareness project.

She also has been a dancer at Lone Star Ballet for eight years and performed in over 15 productions with the ballet, along with teaching at Lone Star Dance Academy for two years.

She will be attending Texas Tech University as a biology major with a Pre-med concentration and minoring in dance.