A rocket scientist for NASA, a master control operator for C-SPAN, a high school math teacher, moms, dads.

These are just some of the ways to describe the valedictorian class of 1999.

It's been 10 years since they graduated at the top of their classes. We wondered, What are they up to now?

We attempted to track down valedictorians from Washington County schools to see if they would share their stories.

For the most part, we were successful.

We found 11 valedictorians willing to update us on their lives since high school, including three co-valedictorians from Williamsport High School.

Here are their stories.

Rocket scientist on the run

Bryan Matonak is a rocket scientist.

Matonak, co-valedictorian of Williamsport High's class of 1999, is a thermal engineer for NASA at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., a job he got three months ago.

His current project is a global precipitation measurement satellite that will eventually have a low-earth orbit.

His job is to design and analyze thermal control systems for satellites and components for use in space, where the temperature can range from minus 270 degrees Celsius (minus 454 degrees Fahrenheit) to 200 degrees Celsius (392 degrees Fahrenheit). A typical electronics box on Earth needs to be kept at a temperature range of 32 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

He worked for Swales Aerospace, which went on to become a part of ATK Space Systems. There, he worked on a gamma ray large area space telescope - now called Fermi - that was launched into orbit via rocket in June 2008.

Matonak's interest in engineering stems from his fondness and proficiency for math and science, something he picked up from his father, Dan, a structural engineer and owner of a Hagerstown engineering firm.

Bryan Matonak began working for NASA while studying physics and math at Salisbury University. Matonak had an internship and did a research project for NASA at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

Matonak, who did cross country and tennis in high school, likes to play golf, and compete in triathlons and half-marathons.

He plans to participate in a triathlon at Marty Snook Park in Halfway on July 27, but he won't be too worried about his time. His high school reunion is the previous evening.

"I'm probably not too worried about time and performance, because I'll be hanging out at the high school reunion," said Matonak, 28, who lives in Annapolis.

Teaching is a lightbulb moment

Amy Wagaman got interested in teaching as an undergrad at Kenyon College in central Ohio. She had tutored students while she was a student at St. Maria Goretti High School, and she continued tutoring at Kenyon.

"I like seeing the light bulb going off in my students' heads and figuring out 10 million ways to explain something," said Wagaman, Goretti's 1999 valedictorian.

After double-majoring in math and anthropology at Kenyon, Wagaman went to University of Michigan for her doctorate in statistics.

Now she's an assistant professor at Amherst College in Massachusetts.

Wagaman, 27, lives close to campus and hopes to buy a house once she gets tenure.

She played volleyball for the Gaels, but has switched to archery. Wagaman learned target archery as a youth in summer camp, and she found it a good stress reliever in grad school.

Working with children and becoming vegetarian

Since graduating from Grace Academy, Laura Rushing has become a wife, mother and vegetarian and discovered she likes working with children.

She attended Cedarville University in Ohio, where she met her future husband, David Gross, on a Habitat for Humanity trip to build houses in Mississippi during spring break.

After graduating, Laura returned to Washington County and took a job at Brook Lane's school for kids with emotional or behavioral issues. At Brook Lane's Laurel Hall, she helped students in the classroom.

Three years later, she became assistant children's librarian at the Washington County Free Library. Working with kids at the library became a passion.

"That was probably, oh, my wake-up call. This is what I'm really good at," said Gross, 27, who lives in Hagerstown.

Gross took some time away from working after her son, Elijah, was born. He was born the day the final Harry Potter book was released.

"My husband actually picked up the book while I was in labor," said Gross, who added she still gives David a hard time about that.

Gross became assistant director at a crisis pregnancy center in Waynesboro, Pa., in April.

Gross said she went back and forth during college between being a vegetarian and eating chicken and fish. At Washington County Free Library, several of her co-workers were vegetarians. After giving it some consideration, Gross determined it would be a healthier choice.

Her husband is not a vegetarian.

"He is very gracious and he eats what I prepare here at home and whenever we go out he gets a steak as big as his face," she laughed.

Doctoral candidate and mother of three

Sarah (Jardeleza) Winger's life just got even busier.

Boonsboro High School's 1999 valedictorian gave birth to twin girls, Talia and Sonja, on May 22. She and her husband, high school classmate C.J. Winger, have a 2 1/2-year-old son, Duncan, too.

The couple live in Athens, Ga., where Sarah Winger is in the final year of her doctoral program in plant biology at the University of Georgia and teaches undergraduate courses.

While studying at St. Mary's College of Maryland in Southern Maryland, she started working for the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Md., as an intern. After graduation she worked there as a technician.

Her work focuses on the origins of eukaryotic cells, which are living organisms organized into complex structures such as humans, trees, plants and other animals.

She and her co-researchers are trying to determine how single-celled organisms evolved into multicelled organisms such as a tree or animal.

In addition to teaching college students, Winger volunteers. She shows kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers how to interest students in protists - simple, mostly single-celled life forms that live nearly everywhere water is found on Earth.

"I definitely love teaching," she said.

Politics and riding

Jennifer Martin planned to go to college and become a doctor.

Instead she's working for C-SPAN.

"I realized that math is not my strong suit and that was going to be a burden, especially with stuff like chemistry," Martin said.

Studying communications at Hollins University in Roanoke, Va., Martin found working with TV equipment fun.

Working as a production assistant for NBC 25 in Hagerstown during college reinforced that feeling, so Martin pursued a career in TV.

She worked for NBC 25 for 1 1/2 years after college, then got the job at C-SPAN. As a master control operator, she puts the programs on air, adds the graphics, and records incoming feeds, such as C-SPAN's coverage of Congress.

Martin, 27, belonged to Williamsport High's art and French clubs.

She spent a college semester in Paris and takes photographs as a hobby. Mostly, she shoots landscapes such as Monticello, which she visited recently.

As a teenager, Martin learned equestrian jumping at Holiquin Riding Center in Waynesboro, Pa. As an adult, she adopted a retired thoroughbred racehorse, and they have begun jumping competitively in the Falls Church, Va., area, where Martin lives.

Singing, software and the sciences

While at Hancock Middle-Senior High School, Corrie (Bowers) Reed played clarinet in the Hancock Panthers concert and marching band and sang in the school choir.

Hancock's 1999 valedictorian still sings - at church, with a community choir and at weddings.

She married John Reed, who she met at Lancaster Bible College where she majored in voice.

Upon graduating, the couple started their own franchise of Market America. Market America focuses on Internet marketing, helping others market their products and services.

Corrie Reed also works part time for an accounting firm, doing secretarial and computer work while helping others learn new software.

Reed, 27, of Manheim, Pa., also is looking into studying naturopathic medicine so she can become a naturopathic doctor.

Pharmacy and travel

Smithsburg High's 1999 valedictorian Angie Wilson wanted to go to college and intern to the pharmacy program, which she did at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va.

After six years of study, including four in a doctorate pharmacy program, Wilson earn her pharmacist license in July 2005.

She worked as a pharmacist at CVS Pharmacy, for whom she had interned during pharmacy school.

Since last October Wilson has worked as a staff pharmacist for Potomac Pharmatech, a pharmacy in Williamsport that supplies medications to nursing homes.

But life hasn't all been about work.

In 2006, Wilson traveled to Europe, visiting Finland, France, and England. In England, she saw shows such as "Les Misrables" and also visited Stonehenge. Her next destination: Hawaii.

Wilson, 28, bought a house down the road from where she grew up, between Ringgold and Leitersburg.

Medicine and finance

When South Hagerstown High valedictorian Grace Thammasuvimol graduated in 1999, her plan was to major in biology.

Thammasuvimol, 28, double-majored in biology and finance at the University of Maryland, College Park. She thought the finance degree might be useful in operating her own practice one day. Thammasuvimol also interned with the Food and Drug Administration.

Before starting medical school, Thammasuvimol took a few months off and traveled to southeast Asia, where she visited family.

She graduated from medical school at Drexel University in Philadelphia in May. Later this month, she will start her four-year residency in psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital. After her residency, she will pursue a two-year fellowship specializing in psychiatry for children and adolescents.

"I can see a light at the end of the tunnel," said Thammasuvimol, who is still considering having her own practice one day.

Meeting her goals

Anne (Cirincione) Donnelly remembers jokingly saying, during her senior year at North Hagerstown High, that she wanted to go to college, get a great education, meet her husband and land a great job.

"I definitely ticked off those ... goals in 10 years, which I think is a lot to say," said Donnelly, 27, who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., with her husband, Shawn. They celebrated their first anniversary last month.

Donnelly, North High's valedictorian for 1999, wasn't sure what she wanted to study when she went to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. She thought she'd stay in the humanities and arts or pursue science. Instead, she graduated with a bachelor's degree in human and organizational development.

After graduation from Vanderbilt, she didn't get a "real professional job" for seven months, spending time at the beach.

Then she moved to New York and took jobs in advertising. Now she's the advertising manager for PR Week Magazine.

Donnelly also volunteers with the nonprofit HOPE program, for which she tutors adults in preparation for taking the general equivalency diploma test.

Math and the ministry

When he was Clear Spring High School's valedictorian in 1999, Matt Michael planned to go to college to become a high school math teacher. He's now doing just that at Century High School near Sykesville, Md.

"This is exactly what I wanted to be doing, and I'm having a great time," said Michael, 28.

Michael, who played third base for the Blazers, has coached Century's varsity baseball team for five seasons. He coached the junior varsity baseball and basketball teams for a while, too. He also helps with the school's youth ministry, called Young Life.

He lives in Westminster, Md., which puts his family equal distance from his mom in Clear Spring and his wife's family in Glen Burnie, Md.

Michael and his wife, Alana, met at Western Maryland College, which became McDaniel College during his senior year.

They have a son, Lukas, 3, and a daughter, Corinne, 17 months.

Michael said they will probably move to the Clear Spring area once Lukas is school age.

"Every time I come back, I really miss it," Michael said.

That's a big reason they are planning to move to the area where he was born and raised. Michael said his life would have been a lot different if he hadn't been surrounded by that close-knit community.

Defense and a new dog

Scott Davis likes golf and computers.

He's terrible at the former, but great with the latter.

So he pursued computer engineering as a major at University of Maryland, College Park, after graduation. Davis was a co-valedictorian at Williamsport High School in 1999.

He didn't have a particular industry in mind to work for after graduation, so he took at job with a small defense contractor, Lakota.

In early 2007, he got the job with a larger defense contractor, Northrup Grumman.

Davis, 28, lives in Laurel, Md., with his girlfriend, Rebecca Frankenberger. The couple adopted a mutt, Owen, from a shelter about a month ago.