Twenty-two graduating high school students were recognized at the Wake County Board of Education meeting on Tuesday as the valedictorians of 2009.

Each high school with a senior class names a valedictorian. This is the first graduating class and the first valedictorians for Holly Springs and Panther Creek high schools.

According to Wake County Public Schools, 17 of the students plan to attend North Carolina universities with nine going to NC State University, five going to UNC-Chapel Hill and three bound for Duke.

Four are headed to out-of-state schools: Cornell University, Notre Dame, University of Michigan and Wofford College. One is headed out of the country to McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Four want to be engineers, four indicated interest in medicine, three plan to be research scientists and one wants to be an astronaut. The students' career interests include astrophysicist, geneticist and district attorney.  Hear more from the valedictorians in a WCPSS interview.

In previous years, the school board has honored valedictorians with a luncheon, but did not do it this year because of budget cuts.