There can be a lot of expectations on the future of a school's valedictorian, and that goes double at Central Collegiate this year.

Arhum Niaz and Ethan Schultz have been named this year's co-valedictorians, and both have big plans for the future.

Niaz moved to Canada 7 years ago from South Africa and though there were a lot of things that were different between the two countries, she was able to learn and then excel at academics. She doesn't plan to slow down after high school.

"I'll be attending the U of S this fall, and I'd like to do medicine, so I will be working on my science degree," Niaz said. She is looking to follow in some big footsteps. "My dad is a doctor, so I was kinda influenced in that way."

Schultz is also looking to take some big steps after high school. In fact, he knew back in grade 11 where he wanted to go.

"I kinda started pondering 'Maybe I should apply to Harvard and see if I can beat the really slim odds on that one.' So I started practising for the standardized tests that I had to take. I had to take two series of those. I also had to accumulate several essays and teacher recommendations. Then I had to compile everything into one big, cohesive picture for my application. I think even the application process was a meaningful experience."

Schultz found out he was accepted in December, and plans to study Government there, which would be the same as Political Science here.

Both valedictorians give a lot of credit to the classes and teachers at Central Collegiate, without which they wouldn't have made it this far.