Triton Central Salutatorian wants to make a difference through medical research

Editor’s note: This is the tenth in a series of feature stories celebrating the Class of 2026 valedictorians and salutatorians at the five high schools in Shelby County.

Gracie Humphreys was never concerned about her class ranking. She knew she was a top 15 student in Triton Central’s Class of 2026, but she never worried over the designation.

At Awards Night in early May, Humphreys was again a top 15 student but was not mentioned as the class valedictorian or salutatorian. A week later she was invited into the school’s office.

“I was told they were pretty sure (Brynne Aukerman and Aiden Mitchell) were going to tie (as valedictorians with identical grade point averages), and I was the salutatorian,” she explained.

That left Humphreys will little time to prepare a graduation speech she never planned on giving.

“It was really stressful,” she said. “I took a speech class my last semester which helped so much. I had to give a couple of speeches in class, and at the top 15 ceremony you get to make a speech. That also helped.

“It was still so stressful. It was weird because I didn’t really know what to say. Eventually it worked out in the end. I remember walking into the gym for graduation and it was packed. I had never seen so many people in the gym before.”

Spreading her wings and meeting more people was part of the reason she chose to attend Purdue University this fall. She plans to major in Biochemistry with the goal of getting into medical research.

“I knew I wanted to do in state,” said Humphreys of her college choice. “It was either Purdue or Rose-Hulman. I visited them and at Purdue, the atmosphere was so nice. There are a lot of undergraduate research opportunities, which I am very excited for. Just talking to all of the people that go there, it felt like the right fit.”

Humphreys became fascinated with medical research after hearing a teacher explain how a cancer misdiagnosis affected her life.

“I knew I wanted to do something with science. I just didn’t know what,” she said. “I was talking to a teacher and she was telling her story about her medical issues. Originally, she thought she had ovarian cancer. That was her diagnosis for a long time. She had surgery and when she woke up, they told her she had endometriosis. They didn’t know it until she was cut open for surgery.

“That kind of got me thinking about, we don’t know much about endometriosis. It’s being more researched now. I want to be able to research these things so it’s not repeated with anyone else.”

Humphreys understands she closed out her Triton Central experience in a very comfortable environment. Now she wants to grow stronger away from home and experience new things.

“(Size of the school) was definitely something I was considering,” she said. “Rose Hulman is a lot smaller. I feel like I’ve been in a small school and it’s nice for certain things. It’s a great community and it’s very close knit. I wanted to have a place where I have so many opportunities.

“For me, I get anxious and I feel like being in a small school didn’t really help that because I knew all the people around me my entire life. It’s not like I had the experience of talking to a lot of people. I think it will be good for me to branch out a little bit.”

Even if that branching out is tough on her parents, Kyle and Laurie Humphreys.

“My mom is so torn up,” she said. “Every time anyone brings it up, she has to take a deep breath. My dad is handling it a lot better.”

Being a freshman at Triton Central involved changing buildings on the Fairland campus. Humphreys survived that challenge and believes she is ready to start over in West Lafayette as a freshman once again.

“When I was a freshman (at TC), it was definitely nerve-wracking because I had never been in the building before or knew where everything was. I guess this time, it’s a lot bigger. It worked out well the first time, so I’m not really worried about doing it again.”

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