The Brown County Christian School graduation ceremony for the Class of 2024 will take place at 6 p.m. Friday, May 10 at Victory Life Church.

Benson McCluskey, son of Jeremiah and Ha McCluskey, is the valedictorian while Charles Adams, son of David and Diane Adams, is the salutatorian.

“Reflecting back on the past and seeing how much my mom pushed me to get to where I am now, I’m really thankful,” McCluskey said of earning the valedictorian accolade. “I’m really excited and glad about it, too.”

Adams said of his salutatorian status, “Hearing that I actually got that, achieved that, it makes me really appreciate all the things my mom and dad made me do, the grades I skipped and the dual credit work. It really makes me happy to know that it wasn’t all done for show, there was actually fruit that came from it.”

After graduation, McCluskey intends to pursue a college degree at Tarleton.

“I plan on majoring in Mechanical Engineering,” McCluskey said. “I’ve had this plan for a year and a half. I wanted to go into engineering but the specific field I was still undecided. More recently, I decided on mechanical solely because I’ve worked with mills and lathes before and I found it real fascinating, putting things together and seeing if they work and if they don’t tearing them apart and trying to rebuild them.”

Adams – who is just 16 and “skipped” both 8th and 11th grade, but completed his high school graduation requirements in three years as he took 19 dual credit hours through Ranger College – is headed to Howard Payne.

“I want to be a music major,” Adams said. “I’ve been really interested in music since I was 4 or 5, playing the piano. Back then it wasn’t a passion or hobby, but it’s evolved into something I take pride in and really enjoy doing. I want to see if I can get better at what I love doing, and I’d love to see where I can play around the country sometime in the future. Somewhere overseas would also be really fun.”

Regarding the advantages of attending a smaller sized high school, McCluskey said, “Having the smaller classes, it’s a lot easier to connect one on one with the teacher. I can go to them directly and don’t have to schedule a time. It’s easier to learn, especially, and ask questions.”

Adams added it will be a major transition to go from a graduating class of 3 to a college atmosphere.

“Going to college is going to be a very big switch from here,” Adams said. “It’s going to be different with how I communicate with my teacher and fellow students, and that’s something I’ll have to get used to.”

When it comes to favorite classes at BCCS, McCluskey pointed out Bible.

“The discussions and topics we would be on, part of me had a lot of joy talking about it and letting the Holy Spirit out,” McCluskey said.

For Adams, he enjoyed History the most in the classroom.

“I had a lot of fun with History and that’s what I planned on majoring in before I decided on music,” Adams said. “Most of my dual credits are History related, federal government, U.S. History. I have a lot of fun with History. It’s an irrational thing, but I love it. I’m really happy I got to take so many classes.”

Looking 10 years down the road, Adams said, “Music isn’t really a finite thing, there’s so many things that could happen, so many people you could meet that can get you in different situations. But I’d love to move to Japan and pursue a music career in the jazz circuit or something similar. I think that’d be a really great place to be. I just hope God will guide me and I’m where I need to be.”

McCluskey added, “I see myself working for a company, married, maybe with a kid. I want to have a stable job, be supporting my family and always keeping God in my life. I also want to try and be close to Brownwood, stay local and be with my family.”

As for their final thoughts as high school seniors, Adams said, “I’m excited to be moving forward. It’s like a dream to graduate from high school, a foreign concept that would never happen. Now that it’s happening it doesn’t hit. It won’t hit until you have that freedom in your life and realize you’re out of the school system and heading to college.”

McCluskey said, “My parents put me in the day care at Victory Life when I was little. To make it all the way to graduating from this school, sticking with this school almost my whole life, is something I’m pretty proud of.”