(Note: Our audio interview was recorded before Aubrey was officially announced as valedictorian).
Aubrey Vervynckt comes from a very big Catholic family. It’s also a very smart Catholic family. A very, very smart Catholic family.
The Plymouth High School senior was just named Valedictorian for her senior class but she’s far from the first member of her family to receive the honor. Her mom Laura led the way as a valedictorian at Plymouth. Four of her brothers were valedictorian and a sister was salutatorian. Aubrey is the youngest of 8 kids and has matured in her faith thanks to not only her parents but her siblings as well. The Vervynckt family are parishioners at St. Michael’s Church in Plymouth.
Aubrey is our Redeemer Radio 95.7FM Student of the Month for June, presented by Ben’s Soft Pretzels. Our student of the month recognizes high school seniors who excel in the classroom, show a strong Catholic faith and are involved in extracurricular activities.
In addition to being named valedictorian, Aubrey received the Keizer Award that goes to the top female athlete in the senior class and was named Student Athlete of the Year for her efforts in soccer and tennis. Other extracurricular activities include Student Council, National Honor Society, Spanish Club, Seed Club & Art Club. Student Council has been great for her, giving her opportunities to serve her community.
“Just recently we put on a field day for the special needs kids,” Aubrey explained. “We had a bunch of different schools come to our high school--out on the football field and we had tons of activities for them to do. And we got to know the students and getting to interact with all of them and find out about their lives and just being there for them and helping them to have a great day.”
Aubrey also helped put on a Christmas Party for underprivileged kids in the Plymouth school system.
“We have this Christmas party every year. We get a list of students that can come to this event. The Student Council members, we go around to businesses throughout Plymouth and we collect as many donations as we can. Then we go out and we buy gifts for all of these students who may not have that opportunity at home during the Christmas season.”
When it comes to school—no question—academics are most important for Aubrey. It’s a tremendous honor for her to become the 6th member of her family to be named valedictorian.
“Grades have always been very important, always striving to be the best and get A's in all of my classes,” Aubrey says. “I have a ton of siblings to look up to and my mom who can always help me with my homework and help me to be my best.”
Having that big family with seven older siblings has given Aubrey a number of people to help her grow in her faith journey as well.
“Some of them have already gotten married and have kids,” Aubrey says of her siblings. “So the family just keeps growing and I'm always looking up to them and their marriages and getting to see all of everything that they've gone through in life. We've had five Baptisms and First Communions just within this last month. I have twin nieces who just had their First Communion, two of my newest nieces just got baptized and one of my nephews just had his First Communion as well. It's a ton of fun and all of my family gets together and we just have a great time.”
“My parents, they always made sure that we go to Church every Sunday,” Aubrey said. “We like to get involved with the Church as much as we can. My dad takes us to help clean around the Church or do yard work. And they've just been huge examples for us.”
Aubrey says her faith has grown even stronger after her oldest niece Emery went through a very scary and serious incident last fall.
“She basically had a heart attack,” Aubrey said. “She was out on a run for one of her little clubs and kind of fell to the ground. Luckily one little...
