WEST PARIS – Talk about a perfect grade point average.

Sienna Tinsley, this year’s valedictorian at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School, ended up with an average of 100.25 percent.

“It’s because I took advanced placement classes, which are worth more than 100 percent,” said Sienna, the daughter of Cynthia and Forrest Tinsley of West Paris.

Sienna has been at the top of her class ever since she was a freshman and has always cared about getting good grades.

She’s not sure why. It just seemed important to her not to settle for anything less than her best possible effort, she said.

“I just worked really hard. I wanted to come by my grades honestly.”

Besides plenty of hard work and late nights, she had help from teachers, she said. “They always knew that I cared,” she said, and would let her know if she’d forgotten an assignment or missed a chance to stay at the top of her class.

Her achievement gave her a choice of some of the best schools – Bowdoin, Bates, Colby and the University of Maine at Farmington in Maine, and Smith and Amherst colleges in Massachusetts.

She chose Amherst because her family has long had ties to that area. “My uncle used to live there. It feels like my second home,” she said.

Her good grades also paid off big in scholarship money. She was selected by the SAD 17 scholarship committee to receive $30,000 from the James A. & Beatrice D. Jackson Scholarship.

Classmate William Ackley also received $30,000 from that fund, which is reserved for a male and a female student who are residents of West Paris. The selection is based on academic achievement, diligence and hard work, and public spiritedness.

Everyone told her she was a cinch to receive the scholarship, she said, but Sienna wasn’t sure.

This fall, she’ll study math and foreign languages – two of her favorite subjects – but she hasn’t decided on a major yet.

“When it comes to classes, the useless ones are the ones that really interest me,” Sienna said.

Twelve other students were honored this year for earning grades that put them in the top 5 percent of their graduating class of 259 students.

They are, in order of their grade average, Robert McVety, Rachel Holden, Abigail Bunnell, Ashley Millett, Jennifer Johnson, Leif Melhus, Jessica Malone, Eleanor Schwaner, Leona Merk, Seth McAlister, John Melhus and Janaya Millett.