Florida family stuns as all four daughters are crowned valedictorian
The status of high school valedictorian is an honor that many parents may be thrilled to see their child achieve — but what if all of your kids are successful in clinching the title?
A central Florida family may have made history after all four daughters were named valedictorian in their respective high school classes — a feat that’s reportedly a 1 in an 11 billion chance.
Tracey Rendina’s four girls — Ryleigh, age 18, Taylor, 20, Alisa, 22, and Makaley, 24 — all graduated from the same high school in different years and each one took home the coveted academic award.
Tracey Rendina, math department chair at Astronaut High School in Titusville, where her daughters were students, credits the impressive accomplishment to her girls’ “great work ethic,” she told Fox News Digital in an interview.
Rendina said she and her husband, Mike Rendina, never put pressure on their daughters to achieve this goal.
“We never told them they had to make As. There was no [telling them], ‘You have to do this or else.’ It was always, ‘You just do your best,’” Rendina said.
“‘As long as you’re doing your best, whatever that is, is what we expect,'” she added.
The Rendina family’s first daughter, Makaley, was named valedictorian when she was a senior — and two years later, her sister, Alisa, achieved the same.
Again, two years after Alisa’s accomplishment, Taylor was named class valedictorian, which meant one daughter then remained.
“By the time we [reached] No. 4, and she knew that all of her sisters had been valedictorian, I do think she felt internally some pressure to do that as well,” Rendina said.
The mom said that she and her husband always wanted to make sure their kids knew that they were there for them, regardless of whether they experienced wins or failures.
“That’s where I’m most proud of them,” she said. “Even in those times when there were those devastating things, we were all there to support them and their sisters were there to support each other, too, and tell them, ‘It’s going to be OK and whatever went wrong, you can come back from that.'”
Amid academic challenges and hurdles that her kids faced in school or in their extracurricular activities, Rendina wanted her kids to learn how to be resilient and fight back, she said.
Rendina said that as her youngest daughter, Ryleigh, 18, neared the end of her high school career, she felt a great sense of “relief” when Ryleigh was officially named valedictorian of her 2024 graduating class.
Even the older sisters felt a sense of relief, too, as they were well aware of how challenging that title is to achieve, the mom indicated.
“I think they all had that sense of relief that, ‘OK, we all did it. Now we’re all in this together and we all made it right,'” Rendina added.
“It’s like a win for one is a win for all.”
Rendina said she found that instilling a sense of independence and a strong work ethic played a role in helping all four of her girls find balance and success in school.
“It gets to a certain point where you have to be the one who’s accountable to yourself,” Rendina said.
Tracey and Mike Rendina will soon be “empty nesters,” but they love seeing their daughters flourish through all stages of academia and beyond.
Now the parents of four can watch as their final daughter blossoms into the young woman they prepared her to be, they said.
“And for me, as a mom, that’s the most exciting time of my life. I’m so excited to see who she’s going to become,” Rendina said.
As one daughter prepares for college, another has graduated and is jumping into the workforce, so all of her girls are in new and exciting stages of life at the same time.
Rendina said her message to her daughters is, “The world is your oyster now.”
“Go out and do and be amazing and take advantage of everything that’s available to you,” she added.
“Go be you and enjoy what there is out there for you.”
Ryleigh Rendina will attend the University of Florida in Gainesville to study biomedical engineering in the fall.
During her high school career, she was involved in the Florida High School Athletic Association and church activities — and clocked in 800 hours of community service.
