Welcome to our annual list of high school students who ranked at the top of their graduating class. We got responses this year from 84 schools, public and private, in St. Paul, nearby suburbs and western Wisconsin. Schools were asked to send us the names of their high achievers — however they define them. Some schools use the “valedictorian” and “salutatorian” distinctions. Others designate “highest honors” or degrees of “cum laude” or a percentage of the senior class. Schools submitting 10 names or fewer are invited to ask their students for an inspirational quote, and as ever, students cited words from a range of historic and contemporary writers, musicians and artists, political figures, scientists and celebrities. One pulled inspiration from the 1800s, with Ralph Waldo Emerson’s advice to “Finish each day and be done with it, you have done what you could. …Tomorrow is a new day, begin it well and with too high … [Read more...] about Top graduates 2018: High achievers and words that inspired them