It was no accident that Emma Gillum and Hillary Koeman finished first and second in the Aubrey High School Class of 2025.
Both scholars set goals for academic success and pushed themselves to achieve it, and they were excited to have so many of their friends and female graduates finish in the Top 10 percent alongside them with only one male graduate, Nathan Hough, cracking that list.
'We've all been friends for a long time,' Gillum said. 'We've all been in the same classes, competing with each other, and it's just been fun to see how it's played out.'
Gillum participated not only in academicbased extracurriculars such as National Honor Society, but also in multiple sports as an athlete.
'It was something that I wanted all four years,' she said. 'Once grades came out freshman year, I was determined to keep it to where I was in front. It was a lot of hard work.'
She cited her competitive nature, which also helped fuel her participation in varsity soccer and powerlifting.
'I wanted to succeed, and I feel like that's evident throughout everything I do, not just this,' Gillum said. 'It's just always been in my nature to do the best that I can.'
She is set to attend Texas A&M University to pursue an engineering degree with the goal of becoming a biomedical engineer.
'I've always loved math and science,' Gillum said. 'The appeal of combining life sciences and humanities with physics and engineering and technology is very interesting to me, and it's the perfect culmination of humanity and technology.'
Gillum mentioned math teacher Marissa Cabrales and English teacher Dawn Dooley as having had a special impact on her.
'Really, just all of my teachers throughout my [education],' she said. 'I've had some great ones. There are so many of them, it's hard to name them all.'
She also spoke of the impact her family, including her parents Lezlie and Jason and her younger sister Ruby, have had on her success.
'My sister is always my biggest fan, always cheering me on,' she said. 'My family, they pushed me without pushing me to the breaking point.'
Like Gillum, Koeman had her 'heart set on' being one of Aubrey's top graduates.
'When I got to high school, though, I realized that I wanted to make something more of myself,' she said. 'I just wanted to create something that I was proud of, and I wanted to feel proud of myself as I am today.'
Koeman immigrated to the U.S. from Holland in second grade when her parents, Petrus Koeman Sr. and Petra Koeman, decided to make a new life for themselves.
'At first when I got here, I didn't speak any English, so I had to take extra ESL lessons,' she said. 'So, I had to work harder than everyone else to get where I am, but I caught on pretty quickly.'
Her parents' drive to create their own business, Texas Tulips, has inspired Koeman's path to pursue a business administration degree at the University of Texas at Austin.
'I hope to become some sort of business executive,' she said, adding that 'the entrepreneurial mindset has been in the family for generations. Growing up in that you kind of just absorb that kind of mindset.'
Also, like Gillum, she credited her sibling, Peter, with being a huge support throughout her educational career so far, who was the valedictorian of the Class of 2024.
'I wanted to feel that accomplishment like he did,' she said.
Koeman listed Melanie Nowak as helping her prepare for her future in business.
She also said that her geometry teacher, Gregory Lortz, was one of her most influential teachers.
'I remember he said, 'Study not to get an A, but study to understand the material,' and that really stuck [with] me,' Koeman said. 'And he just taught me good study habits and resilience and perseverance.”
