The last valedictorian

The class of 2008 is the class of the last valedictorian.

He is Kyle Masson and he has two loves: math and music.

Beyond this year, Culpeper County High School will rank its top students using percentages.

Honorary titles for seniors achieving the first and second highest grades, cumulatively, will be a thing of the past.

But for this year, Masson, 18, is at the top of his class.

As he heads off to college, he is navigating dual paths. The decision was difficult, but Masson has decided to chase his passion, and that is singing.

He’s also been very serious about hitting the books.

Born and raised in Culpeper, Masson achieved a perfect 4.0 grade point average, meaning he got all As in high school.

Was that important to him?

“Yeah, sort of,” Masson said. “I always wanted to do my best.”

He had a good example too.

Masson’s older brother, Ian, was valedictorian at CCHS in 2006.

“(Ian) is very self motivated and that sort of helped me.”

Though Kyle excelled in all subjects, mathematics was his favorite — that and choir class.

“Math really holds my interest,” Masson said.

But it was his calculus teacher, Nancy Lenz, that really made him love it. He took her for three years, starting with pre-calculus, calculus, and this year, Advanced Placement calculus.

“It’s fast-paced, but she makes sure that you know it,” Masson said. “She demands from you, but you get a good reward.

“Ms. Lenz is good at explaining it to you,” he went on, “like to do a proof for a theorem and then I’m like, OK, that’s why the power rule for derivatives works.”

She has been teaching math for more than three decades and said teaching Kyle was a cinch.

“He is the type of student who is very easy to teach because of his enthusiasm about everything,” Lenz said. “In my three years of teaching him, he never once complained about any assignment I gave.”

Masson enjoys the discussion of mathematics as well, Lenz said, and would often demonstrate to the rest of the class how to figure out problems.

Especially in calculus, understanding the origin of a proof is difficult to understand, and not everyone did, she added.

“Kyle is not that way. Very often, I would put the first two or three lines on the board and he would see where it was going. He didn’t have to be led every step of the way.”

Sometimes, Masson got so excited about math, Lenz said, “He would be bouncing in his seat, waiting until the end so he could share what he knew.”

So why is Masson giving up that kind of enthusiasm to pursue vocal aspirations in college?

First of all, he got a nice scholarship to the acclaimed Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester and it doesn’t take a math whiz to figure that college costs a lot of money.

Kyle, a practical thinker, is looking forward to not having a lot of debt when he graduates.

“I thought, ‘I’m really good at music and why not see how far that can take me?’ Because it’s something that also really holds my interest,” said Masson, who got into the University of Virginia and
William and Mary in Williamsburg as well.

“A lot of people say maybe math is the safer route, you can make money from that, but the people who know me musically say you can really do something with music.”

CCHS choral director Tiffany Richtarski has known Kyle, a bass baritone, since he was in the seventh grade.

“Kyle is very talented and has a high musical ability,” she said of him being accepted into the school’s elite singing group, The Troubadours. “He has an adult voice in a teenager’s body.”

Year after year, Masson takes first in All-District Choir, Richtarski said, and yet, he’s always humble about it.

“He never sticks his nose up at anybody,” she said, and in fact, “Kyle is a leader. He always takes time with all the other students to make them feel important.”

He’s also a ham, Richtarski said, laughing, saying that Masson can go wherever he wants with his music.

“I think he’s going to shine (at the Shenandoah Conservatory),” she said.

Math and music are not that different, Kyle pointed out.

His decision to seriously purse the latter, however, was solidified during his experiences the past few summers attending vocal camps at Westminster Choir College in New Jersey.

“I sang in a choir directed by James Jordan two years now and he just makes you love music,” Masson said of the Grammy-award winning vocal conductor. “He makes it come alive for you.”

Music is Kyle’s passion.

“You always hear those stories about don’t go to college for something you’re good at. Go for what you love. I’m going to see if I can’t just start out doing the thing that I love.”

Ten years from now, Masson sees himself conducting or performing on a high level.

Or, there’s always math.

“Like something in an insurance corporation because I couldn’t just do math sitting and not working with people. I have to work with people.”

A prodigy of math and music, Kyle is also an average teenager, and a practical one.

He loves his friends, took a class in juggling last year and is an avid soccer player. He spent his high school years earning money as a local soccer referee.

He’ll be doing some more of the same this summer.

“Job,” he said when asked of his plans. “I need to get a job for the summer to build up a little bit of money for college.”

Allison Brophy Champion can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 101 or .

CCHS graduation ceremony
When: 9 a.m.
Where: Broman Field behind CCHS
Parking: Limited, with shuttle buses running from Dominion Skating Center, Floyd T. Binns Middle School, Sycamore Park Elementary School and the Culpeper County School Board parking lot.