I got really close to graduating as valedictorian in high school.
Valedictorian is an academic title of success used  by american schools
Just in America? I had no idea.
Valedictorian
Valedictorian is an academic title of success used in the United States, Canada, Philippines, and Armenia (and elsewhere in limited number of schools) for the student who delivers the closing or farewell statement at a graduation ceremony (called a valediction). The chosen valedictorian is traditionally the student with the highest ranking (highest Grade Point Average, or GPA) among their graduating class. The term is an Anglicised derivation of the Latin "vale dicere" ("to say farewell"), historically rooted in the
Aviva Cantor was born in 1940 and raised in the East Bronx by traditional but non-Orthodox parents who had immigrated to North America from Russia after World War I. She attended Ramaz School, an Orthodox Jewish day school, graduating from High School as Valedictorian in 1957. She spent two years studying history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and graduated from Barnard College in 1961 and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1963. In the late 1969's she was involved in advocating for the struggle of Biafra for