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Kateri Jarvis and Amberlynn Gong were bestowed the honor of valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively, for the class of 2025 at Severna Park High School. Both candidates became close friends throughout the process.
“I did not think I was going to get it at all,” Jarvis admitted.
The honor was so unexpected, Kateri was not planning to attend the school’s ceremony that announced valedictorian, salutatorian and other awards for students.
“I also felt a little bit of imposter syndrome,” she added. “I felt like there were so many amazing candidates this year and so many of my peers were really talented and so smart.”
Jarvis’ high school journey consisted of many challenging courses that would ultimately set her up on a pre-med track. She took one Advanced Placement (AP) class during her freshman year along with three honors classes. Her sophomore year consisted of five honors and two AP classes, which included French and Chinese classes. Her junior year, Jarvis took six AP courses and fully immersed herself with Chinese by taking honors Chinese and dropping French. Senior year, she took three AP classes, though her favorite course was honors chemistry, which ultimately was one of her more difficult classes. She enjoyed the challenge.
She set the bar high for her extracurriculars and activities. Jarvis created her own English as a Second Language nonprofit, or ESL, which she started in sixth grade. It has grown into a seven-year passion and her hard work paid off.
Academics paved the way for an opportunity for a research internship at Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, where she worked alongside the team studying human iPS cell core for neurodegenerative disease research.
She also participated in JV volleyball at Severna Park High School until her sophomore year, when she shifted gears to more of a behind-the-scenes role. She became the assistant commissioner of BAYS volleyball, a youth rec volleyball team in the Broadneck area.
Jarvis created her own club called the Wishing Crane project, which modeled an organization in Arizona; however, she made it her own. The club’s purpose was to create origami cranes, which would be donations to Hospice of the Chesapeake and organizations with the same mission of caring for people experiencing serious illness and loss.
Along with all her academic activities, Jarvis volunteered to help her community. For four years, she volunteered with the Chick-fil-A Leadership Academy and worked to raise a $10,000 Coca Cola grant for freshmen.
Amberlynn Gong also showed exceptional work in classes and extracurriculars at Severna Park High School.
Gong undertook a difficult course load including four AP classes as a sophomore, seven AP classes as a junior, and four AP classes as a senior, along with two harder classes that were weighted the same as APs. She juggled this huge workload with extracurriculars.
A varsity swimmer, Gong will continue swimming in college. She helped the Falcons win the 2025 girls county championship, a meet at which she broke the school’s 200 individual medley record and also won the 100-yard breaststroke. For the Naval Academy Aquatic Club, she won the 100 butterfly at the club state meet and finished second in the 200.
Gong is not only a swimming champion, but she also played a role in student government as her class’s treasurer. She finished her senior year as a member of Severna Park High School’s Math Honor Society, Spanish Honor Society and Honor Society.
When Gong is not in school or busy with all her activities, she listens to music, enjoys the outdoors, hangs out with her friends, and reads in the little free time she has.
Well-rounded extracurriculars and rigorous classes have set Jarvis and Gong up for their futures. After graduation, Jarvis is off to the University of Maryland, where she will major in biology, and she hopes to begin pre-med. Gong will attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and will major in mathematical economics.
Jarvis explained that becoming valedictorian and salutatorian brought her and Gong closer. They even went to senior week together.
“We had mutual (friends), but definitely got a little bit closer because we were with each other more. I just knew she was an amazing person,” Jarvis said.
Gong shared advice for younger students.
“Just have an open mind,” she said. “Try new things and try to talk to as many people as you can, because there's so many unique perspectives and points of view. Don’t be afraid to reach out.”
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