A Conversation With the Class of 2025 Valedictorian and Salutatorians

For the last few years, the Steel Valley School District has taken the opportunity to sit down with the class valedictorian and salutatorian to learn more about the impact Steel Valley had on them and their future plans. This year, that conversation includes three students - Class of 2025 valedictorian Darwin Burns and salutatorians Kylie Salopek and Elaina Tichon, who are sharing the honor.

From the very beginning, academic success was on the minds of Darwin Burns, Kylie Salopek, and Elaina Tichon. Whether it was ingrained into them at home by their parents and older siblings, an internal desire to succeed, or something more tangible, each of them was determined to achieve as much as possible during their four years at Steel Valley High School.

As the trio prepares for graduation at the end of May, they can now look back at their efforts with immense pride. Burns has been named the Class of 2025 valedictorian, while Salopek and Tichon will share honors as the Class of 2025 salutatorians.

Joining them in the Class of 2025 Top 10 are Piper Olack, Abby Curran, Abigail Fitzgerald, Darrion Rozzo, Kamryn Hutching, Elbachir Benboujema, and Sophia Sabo. You can meet all of them here.

Each of them has balanced their rigorous academic workload with active participation in numerous activities. In the following conversation, the three seniors reflected on their time at Steel Valley and shared their plans for the future. The interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Was high academic success always a goal for you?

BURNS: I'd say absolutely. I walked into kindergarten kind of with the mindset that I had to be valedictorian eventually. It was a long road, but we climbed up there.

TICHON: Around middle school, I was like, “OK, I have pretty good grades. I could probably do something with them.” And then once high school came, I saw the rank and I was pretty high up. I thought I could maybe do something with that.

SALOPEK: I always knew that it was something that I was kind of expected to at least be in the Top 10. My parents both work in education, and school is very important in our house. So I always knew that taking high classes would get me there.

In light of all of that, what does it mean to have this achievement?

SALOPEK: It's honestly an honor to be able to graduate from here. I have such good memories in my past four years. I wouldn't give my time up for anything. And it's honestly been fun. I'm graduating with a lot of college credits, and I've had fun, while taking the classes because of the staff here. I'm extremely happy that I'm moving on to the next chapter, but I'm happy that it was from here.

TICHON: I agree. Definitely super fun. I feel like Steel Valley is very unique, especially the staff. Throughout my high school years, especially, I've grown up with the same people, and it's nice to take the same classes as them and help each other out. And the staff definitely helps a lot too, because sometimes it is kind of tough.

BURNS: I completely agree. I was talking to Mr. Vickers about this this morning, and he said that the one thing that makes Steel Valley different is that the staff cares not only about people as students, but as people themselves. And I really think that rings true for most of the teachers here. I don't think that myself or a lot of people coming through Steel Valley could have the success that we do have without the staff that we have here.

You are all involved in a lot of different extracurriculars and community activities. What are some of the highlights from the various activities you’ve been involved with?

BURNS: The biggest extracurricular would be that I've been in Student Council for four years. I'm currently the co-president for that. I've been a part of the volleyball team for four years. I've been a part of SADD for three years. Community wise, I was a T-Ball coach up at Munhall Girls Softball Association for a few years. That was really nice.

TICHON: Cheerleading I've been a part of for three years, and it's definitely been a lot of fun. And volleyball for four years. Softball was also fun for four years. Definitely Student Council, too. I'm just part of the Executive Council. It's definitely cool to be involved and get on field trips. Out of school, I go on trips with my church. It's called Appalachian Work Camp, and we build houses for less fortunate families in Kentucky. It’s a really cool experience that everyone I think should get to do.

SALOPEK: I have a lot that I've been involved in here: Soccer for four years, softball for four years. I dabbled in swim. Those are all awesome. Our sports teams are like the highlight of my high school experience, being on those teams. I'm the class president, and then I'm on the Student Council. Elaina and I are on the Executive Council together. Out of school I've done vacation bible school at my church, blood drives, and helping out stuff like that, which is all through Student Council, really. It gets us involved in things in the entire community, which is extremely important for people our age.

You are all involved in all of these different activities, and then you also have to worry about your academics. Why is it important to be involved in all of these different things, and how difficult is it to balance your academics with your schedule?

SALOPEK:  Honestly, the difficulty is based per person; it's how driven you want to be to succeed in what you're doing. For me, soccer takes up most of my time, but I've always known that if I wanted to continue on with soccer that school had to be number one. I also think that being involved in those things at the school is how you make relationships with people. A lot of the clubs and stuff that we are involved in, I would have never met the people, and now I have great friendships and know like everyone in the school. I'm just grateful that I've had the opportunity to be friends with people from completely different backgrounds. They're so diverse. It's definitely not easy being at everything all at once. But it's so valuable to be able to time manage moving on.

TICHON: It gets pretty stressful sometimes when you have to go to a game and then you have a test tomorrow, and you still have to make sure you study and stuff. But I think it's very important to be able to be a part of something out of school, because for me, it's like an outlet. Say I'm stressed about something that happened at school, I could just go to softball practice or cheer practice, or cheer at a game, and I don't have to think about it anymore, and I think that's very important.

BURNS: I’d definitely say the time management is the hardest part. But I also think we're lucky that in our extracurriculars and school, we have a lot of teachers and coaches that understand that there's other priorities, and will push things back or help you cope with those things. I think that staying involved is the best part of high school. It's the only way to make those memories and make those connections, and I wouldn't trade that for anything.

Is there a moment or a memory or even a regular occurrence that you already know you’ll miss and hold onto fondly?

TICHON: I think a really cool memory was when it was my first year of cheer, we went to Heinz Field and the football team won. It was really exciting to cheer the football team on and have fun with my friends. It was definitely cool that we won, too.

SALOPEK: My freshman year, we won the WPIAL championship in soccer. It was the first soccer title for the school and I was playing with my sister. So that’s special for me and honestly that is probably my favorite moment ever. Being on a team and enjoying the little things like team dinners and being able to see your teammates inside school and outside school, I'll miss that a lot.

BURNS: Not that we ever made it very far, but definitely the playoff games for softball. The energy is just so different. Everyone wants to be there and competing.  We make those games so close when those games don’t need to be close. It's so different from our regular season in every best way.

Part of what makes Steel Valley special is the willingness of the staff to go above and beyond for their students. Who are some of the teachers who have made that kind of impact on you?

BURNS: Mr. Vickers has been my math teacher for three years now, and he took the opportunity to teach a class where it's just me this year. So he's easily had the largest impact on not only my education, but my social life. I see him more than I see half my friends most of the day [laughter]. He makes the day go by so much easier. He's helped me so much with everything math related. He's helped me with physics before. I would not have had such a good time at Steel Valley without having him as my teacher.

TICHON: I definitely agree. Mr. Vickers has had a crazy impact on my math career. He just always knows how to teach something a certain way, or he can tell right away if you're having trouble. He knows how to make it fun, too. Mrs. Maddigan was my CHS biology teacher last year, and she also is pretty good at explaining things. She’s like a mom, honestly, and I feel like I can go to her about anything, non-school related, too, and I think that’s really cool.

SALOPEK: I have so many good relationships with the teachers here. They're honestly all so awesome. Mr. Vickers is awesome. He can connect with his students in a math way better than any teacher I've ever had, and we can still relate to him and have relationships outside of classwork. Definitely Mr. Goga, too. He’s like family. He had all of my siblings. My mom used to teach here, so he taught with her. We always say he’s my uncle. It’s impressive how many teachers we have here, like Mrs. Maddigan, who is one for me, too, who are really like family. They look at the kids as people who aren't just a piece of paper and grade it. It's important how you're feeling, and they care about you. And Mr. Deabner, too. He’s like my favorite person on this earth. He's so knowledgeable about his topics, but he cares so much about everybody. I can't even explain how much I love him. He's awesome.

You're about a month away from graduation. After you’ve received your diploma and you’ve taken off that cap and gown, what comes next?

BURNS: I’ll be going to Pitt and I’m majoring in psychology. I've always had a lot of mental health related topics appearing in my life. I know a lot of people have struggled with mental health. I've struggled with my own mental health, and it's always been such an important thing to me.  Especially with the youth in our community, I feel like we don't prioritize it as much as we should, and I want to have the opportunity to contribute to that.

TICHON: I think after I graduate, I'm going to have a really nice summer first [laughter]. Then I'll focus on my schooling for nursing. I'm going to Duquesne University, and I chose nursing because I've always been really passionate about science, and I think the body is just so interesting, I also just really love helping people. It makes me happy, so I think nursing would be a good way to go.

SALOPEK: I'm going to Mercyhurst University. I'm also majoring in nursing. I'm playing soccer, so definitely, after I'm out of high school, I'll be hitting the ‘A’ field and running up there. I’ll be going going off to school in July, so I leave early. I like nursing because I've had a grandma who was sick. She lived in my house my whole life. We took care of her from a young age. And I've always known I wanted to do nursing or healthcare ever since handling her.

You’ve all had the opportunity to experience a lot here at Steel Valley. You have underclassmen in your classes and activities who might look up to you. Do you have any parting words of wisdom or advice for those who are following in your footsteps?

BURNS: Make the most of it. It sounds very cliché, but get involved in everything you can. Try and be a part of every single experience, because you will regret it when you graduate if you don't try to fully experience everything that we have here.

TICHON: Yes, definitely get involved as much as you can and make as many friends as you can, because I think the majority of high school the most important thing is to make the most of it.

SALOPEK: I'd say don't take things so seriously. Go and hang out with the new person. Go have fun. Go support your teams. Go to football games. Don't be embarrassed. Go yell for your team. Be yourself and just get out of your shell. It's okay to be uncomfortable sometimes.