Riverview High School Valedictorian and Salutatorian are Excited to Graduate

Leah Koenig and Scott Keefer always knew they'd end up at the top of their graduating class.

"I knew we'd end up as the top two," Keefer, the salutatorian, said.

Koenig, the valedictorian, said both of them tried really hard to get good grades throughout school, though Keefer made it seem easy.

"I always wanted to get into a good school, so I used college as my motivation," she said. "Scott was just a genius. He knew everything."

The duo and the rest of the Class of 2011 will be graduating tonight at 7 p.m. at . Koenig will be attending University of Notre Dame and Keefer will attend Allegheny College in the fall.

Both said they are going to miss some parts of going to high school. Keefer said he always will look back fondly on a Model United Nations conference at Princeton, N.J, in which he was a representative for Israel-Palestine.

"I was with people who all were interested in the same things I was interested in," he said. "We were playing a role we wanted to play for four days."

Koenig said she will miss her days in band and soccer.

"I was able to spend my time with my closest friends through those activities," she said.

But they're still going to miss Riverview.

"I'm going to miss the small-town feel," Koenig said. "I've traveled a lot and gone out of the country, but I've never been too far from Oakmont for such a long time. This is all I've ever known.

"It'll be nice to live on my own without the structure of parents and school. The independence is daunting, but it's also exciting."

Keefer agreed.

"We're going to have more opportunities to do things," he said. "No matter what, there will be people who have the same interests. It'll be easier to pursue what we want."

Before they graduate, though, they must deliver speeches.

"It's difficult to figure out what to say," Keefer said. "I don't want to give the standard graduation speech, so I'm trying to come up with a balance between inspiration and cynicism."

Koenig said she just wants her fellow classmates to enjoy themselves.

"We're graduating high school, and we don't have to decide what we're going to do or what job we're going to have right away," she said. "We have time to decide. We should just have fun and celebrate what we've accomplished on graduation night. This is for us."