Skies No Limit for Berkmar Valedictorian

Destiny Cobb, Berkmar High School’s Valedictorian, says she kind of “stumbled into”  her status as the Lilburn high school’s top student.

She never thought of herself as “gifted,” and her excellent grades came from her desire to learn new things rather than upholding her class ranking.

The only B on her high school report cards came in a second-semester freshman Language Arts class, “but I loved that class,” she said.

“The first time I found out that I was ranked No. 1 [in the first semester of her freshman year],” she said. “I thought, ‘It must be a fluke. They probably forgot to add a zero. It’s probably a typo.’”

Well, it wasn’t.

The daughter of Patricia and Ashley Cobb ended her high-school academics career as No. 1 among the Berkmar’s 2011 graduating class of more than 500 seniors. She will attend Georgia Tech and study Biomedical Engineering, and hopes one day to become an astronaut, furthering space exploration, and ultimately space colonization.

 “Good grades just come as a result of learning,” said Cobb, who lists her favorite subject as Biology, because learning about the subject “makes it more beautiful to look at life.” She plans to minor in History.

“I just try to focus on learning,” she added. “[The grades come from] my own drive to wanting to learn things.”

Cobb hopes her drive will take her to extraordinary heights.

On a questionnaire given to valedictorians by Gwinnett County Public Schools’ media relations, she wrote about her career goals: “Work for NASA or private research institutions to develop technology to aid in the pursuit of human space colonization.”

While that may be an unusual goal in some peoples’ minds, she looks at it as a natural progression in human development.

“I don’t feel like it’s weird, but other people tell me it’s weird,” she said. “I think that’s the future; space colonization. It’s the final frontier. It’s what we do as humans. We explore.”

We asked Destiny Cobb, "What is your vision for the future?" See and hear her answer in the attached video.