Cashmere senior earns valedictorian title with hard work, determination

CASHMERE – Cashmere High School senior Layne Varrelman has worked hard to achieve academic excellence throughout her high school career even when an easier path seemed tempting. 

She persevered and earned a top spot as one of the Cashmere High School Class of 2024 valedictorians.

"I'm not going to lie; at times, it's been really hard having a full schedule of hard classes and college credit classes as well as achieving academic excellence and getting my AA," she said. 

Sometimes, watching classmates take less rigorous classes and not have as much or any homework at all was hard for her. Varrelman sacrificed play time to work at achieving the goals she set for herself, she said. 

"There have been numerous times that I have contemplated why I am doing this to myself and why it matters at all, wanting so badly to give up," she said. "It has taken a lot of encouragement and support from my family to keep me focused on the end result." 

Varrelman credits the support and encouragement from her family, especially her mom, as what kept her on track.

"My mom definitely has been the person that has kept me focused and on top of my grades throughout school, and I couldn't thank her enough for the inspiration she has given me to achieve academic success," she said.

"She has never failed to provide support and encouragement to keep me on my path to valedictorian," she said. 

Varrelman holds herself to high standards and is driven to make her dreams a reality.

"I have been a perfectionist my whole life throughout school, and I have expected very good quality work from myself for as long as I can remember," she said. 

"When I entered high school, I was told by my parents that A's were expected of me, and from then on, I kept that in my head and made that a goal each semester," she said. "I worked very hard to get A's in every class and eventually when it came close to my senior year, I realized I had a shot at Valedictorian, and I was on a mission to make it happen."

"Additionally, I knew that a good GPA looked great on resumes, transcripts, and scholarship applications, and this was a driving factor in my success as well," she said. 

In order to keep up with her studies and still have a social life, Varrelman plans out time to work on homework and projects. 

"There have been many times I have had to skip out on activities or leave early because of school work," she said. "It has been difficult, especially at the end of senior year, because I have so much to get done right now, but there are so many senior activities that I want to attend."

"At the end of the day, I have just learned to be responsible with my time management," she said.

For Varrelman, anything science related is her favorite subject. 

"For example, horticulture, physical science and biology have been really fun classes for me," she said. "I think science is easiest for me to understand, and I am able to retain the information in this subject the best. The science teachers at Cashmere are very good at making these classes fun and interesting."

Varrelman is proud of receiving straight A's in her high school classes as well as college classes, all while doing sports and maintaining an enjoyable social life, she said. 

"This was a very big accomplishment to me and one that I am happy I can say I achieved," she said.

She hopes to leave a legacy at CHS of people being kind and accepting of each other and to inspire others to work hard and achieve their goals, she said.

Her advice to incoming freshmen who aspire to be successful in high school is to work hard and not slack off.

"If they want to go to college after high school and think grades don't matter as a freshman, their mind will definitely change when senior year comes around and it's time to apply for scholarships," she said. "Good writing skills and good grades could make the difference between $5,000 in scholarship money and $30,000+ giving you a free year of college."

"So yes, the hard work and extra effort in high school is 100% worth it," she said.

In the fall, Varrelman plans to attend Washington State University to study Speech and Hearing Sciences. After earning her bachelor's degree, she plans to get a master's in Speech and Language Pathology and become a speech-language pathologist.

"I then want to pursue a career helping kids at a school district overcome their communications barriers," she said.

Quinn Propst: 509-731-3590 or quinn@ward.media.