Still wearing her mortar board, Lakshmi Subramani, near center, accepts congratulations from friends as 2014 valedictorian at James Clemens High School. (CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON – Lakshmi Subramani is 2014 valedictorian at James Clemens High School.

Subramani’s cumulative, weighted GPA was 5.11 and her ACT score was 34. She completed nine advanced-placement classes, including four in James Clemens’ biomedical academy for science, her favorite subject.

She especially enjoyed Blake Harvard’s AP psychology, Shaun Bardell’s AP calculus and Patrice O’Donnell’s AP U.S. history classes.

“It feels really good to know that all the hard work I put in over the last four years paid off,” Subramani said. “The administration called in the top five to write speeches before the term ended. I knew I had a pretty good chance.”

Her parents encouraged a strong work ethic. “They really value the importance of an education and have instilled those values in me. They’ve always expected nothing but my best and motivate me to give my all,” she said.

“When teachers have so much passion for what they do, they make us want to do even more. The teachers are definitely what I’m going to miss the most about James Clemens,” she said.

Her parents are Santhanam and Gowri Subramani. He works as a software design engineer at Adtran, and she is a homemaker. Lakshmi’s sister, Sneha, will enter sixth grade at Mill Creek Elementary School.

The family moved to Madison in 2007 from Petaluma, Calif. “My dad got a great job offer from Adtran. My mother liked the suburb feel of Madison,” Lakshmi said.

Lakshmi founded Health Occupation Students of America (HOSA) at James Clemens and was in HOSA’s biomedical debate team, the 2013 national semi-finalists. She was a Jets Ambassador, in Science National Honor Society and tutored at Kumon.

She earned the $5,000 Madison Mayor’s Award, 2014 Student of the Year and a science Jet-Setter.

Using the all-inclusive Presidential scholarship, Subramani will attend the University of Alabama at Birmingham to study neuroscience.

She was accepted in UAB’s Early Medical School Acceptance Program (EMSAP) and thus already has been accepted into UAB School of Medicine when she completes her bachelor’s degree. She plans to become a pediatrician.