The top 12 students at Pebble Hills High School are all girls. This being the first graduating class, the pressure is on for the girls to make a statement.

Senior Cynthia Fernandez does feel the stress, but feels confident in improving her class rank.

“Since becoming apart of the top 15, there is constant pressure to maintain my class rank,” Fernandez said. “I am my own worst critic so I sometimes struggle with myself because if I slack off I have to face the fact that I’m only letting myself down.”

The top 12 girls can all agree that keeping up with grades and outside activities are hard to do but not impossible. These students need to have at least a 4.0 GPA to rank. 

“None of my plans for the future are completely set in stone at this point, but I do plan on completing at least four years of college,” senior Juliahna Hayes said. “I’m still trying to narrow my list of colleges that I’ll be applying to and am focused on majoring in biological sciences.

Studies have shown that the higher salaries and greater employment for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers, it is mostly dominated by men. Among the computing and engineering fields, which account for 80 percent of STEM jobs, women represent less than one-quarter of the workers.

On June 2 Pebble Hills High School will be at the Don Haskins Center for their first graduation ceremony.