BROOKESMITH – The Brookesmith High School graduation ceremony for the Class of 2025 will take place at 7 p.m. Friday, May 30 at the Brookesmith ISD Gymnasium.

Vegas Gilliam, son of Ky and JeTonna Gilliam, is the valedictorian while Davy Meeks, son of John and Dawn Meeks, is the salutatorian.

“My mom was the salutatorian here and just missed out on being valedictorian, so she really wanted me to get it,” Gilliam said of the valedictorian accolade. “It feels good to be able to do that. It’s exciting and this looks better to colleges.”

Of the salutatorian honor, Meeks said, “It’s similar with me, but my family went to Bangs. For generations they’ve either been valedictorian or salutatorian and I wanted to continue that.”

Gilliam intends to attend Texas Tech University in the fall.

“I’m going to major in Engineering,” Gilliam said. “I want to be a civil engineer, that’s something I’ve always been into. It would cool to be able to design bridges and things like that.”

Meeks is staying a little closer to home and attending Tarleton State University where he plans to study History.

“I’ve really liked History for a long time, I’m really into it,” Meeks said. “I don’t know why but I’ve always found it very interesting. I either want to get my doctorate and become a professor or be a museum curator, that would be very fun.”

Gilliam played football and basketball at Brookesmith, competed at stock shows and was a 4-H officer all four years, including serving as president his senior year.

Regarding what he will remember most fondly about Brookesmith, Gilliam said, “I’ll miss the laid back nature of it. Things are pretty calm now and when I’m finished I can work with our grounds keeper or weld.”

Meeks played football, then was a manager for both the football and basketball programs, but one-act play was his greatest passion as he was awarded best performer in the district as a senior.

“I really enjoy the competition in one-act play,” Meeks said in regard to what he’ll miss most about high school. “I can still act outside of high school, but there won’t be the level of competition and that was a lot of fun.”

Both Gilliam and Meeks are looking forward to larger college classes after being members of a graduating class of 11.

“It will be a relief in some ways,” Gilliam said. “If you do something here now, everybody sees it. It’ll be a lot easier to get lost in the crowd there.”

Meeks added, “Bigger will be a better change of pace. I won’t be surrounded by the same people all the time.”

As far as favorite teachers at Brookesmith, Gilliam said, “Ms. Barrow is cool and helps me out a lot. There’s not a lot of people around that go out of their way to help and that means a lot.”

Meeks chimed in, “I only had Ms. Elrod for a core class, Chemistry, and I hate Chemistry, but she was really fun. I felt like she really taught me because I remember things from her class, and I don’t really like science.”