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Transfer to Jim Elliot was ‘best thing,’ valedictorian says

By Jennifer Pearson Bonnett
News-Sentinel staff writer

The hardest decision Ryan McGladdery had to make in his high school career was transferring from Tokay High School to Jim Elliot Christian School just before his senior year.

It was one that obviously paid off.

	Ryan McGladdery

With a cumulative, four-year grade point average of 4.18, McGladdery led his class as its valedictorian at their graduation on Saturday.

The 18-year-old senior class vice president credits hard work and lack of a social life to his high grades.

“But coming to Jim Elliot was the best thing,” he said. “I got involved, and I got to know everybody.”

This school year, he was on the school’s Ministry Team and in his first three years of school was a member of the Conflict Management Club at Tokay High School.

He also played on the tennis team there.

McGladdery, a lifelong Lodian, made the decision to transfer from Tokay High School to Jim Elliot because he said he needed a change of scenery.

“I also needed the constant Christian atmosphere,” he said. “I’m definitely glad I came here.”

He said what he’ll remember most was the senior class trip to Hawaii earlier this month.

“We really came together,” he said of the 22 graduating students.

A starting-line basketball player, McGladdery’s favorite subject in school was drama.

In the fall, he plans to attend Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego and major in political science. After graduation, the student plans to go to law school.

Does he want to be a lawyer or a politician?

“I think I’m too honest to be a politician, but we’ll see,” he said.

McGladdery lives in Lodi with his mother, Muffy, father, Matthew, and 16-year-old brother, Andrew.

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