Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of stories on the valedictorians of Suffolk’s five high schools. Watch this space the rest of the week for the other honorees.

When Yvette Gamor realized that she could become valedictorian this year, she knew she had to strive for it. The 18-year-old attributed this to her family’s background. Her parents and older sister were originally from Ghana, where education is highly valued.

“We’re also good friends with a lot of Nigerians, and they saw the importance of it, too,” Gamor said. “It was very cool to have this whole African community proud of me.”

Gamor attended King’s Fork High School all four years and was a part of the International Baccalaureate program. She will graduate with a 4.52 grade point average after many long nights of intense research papers and projects for the IB program.

“It’s not a game,” Gamor said.

She was thankful for the generous support of friends through the hard studies, along with her parents, Benjamin and Caroline Gamor, older sister Louisa, 22, and her younger brother Brendan, 14, a rising sophomore at King’s Fork.

“It’s nice to have family and friends tell you to keep going,” she said.

Her favorite subjects have been math and chemistry, which will serve her well when she attends University of Virginia to study biochemistry. She plans to go to medical school to become a geriatrician, but she’s going to keep an open mind for other careers in medicine.

“College is the time to find yourself, but it’s always good to have a plan,” she said.

She’ll miss the school’s underrated library and most importantly the stage. Gamor, a self-proclaimed “theater geek,” had been one of the “Bulldog Players” since she was a freshman.

She performed in seven different plays at KFHS, ranging from holiday plays like “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus” — her personal favorite — and competition pieces in the Virginia High School League contests.

Her first taste of leadership was when she started as a teacher’s assistant for Sunday school classes at Church of Pentecost USA Inc. in Norfolk when she was 13 years old. But theater gave her even more leadership experience and a place for her at KFHS.

“I got a taste for the school’s drama program and became friends with a lot of different people,” she said. “It helped me find my place here.”