A Somerset teen who struggled with her grades and fought to overcome a speech impediment came in with the second-highest grades of the graduating CedarBridge Academy class.Ashley Johnson took principal’s honours for all four of her years at the school — and took an athletics award to top it off.Now hoping to embark on medical studies overseas, Ashley Johnson, 17, admitted it didn’t come easy.“This year I had a challenging time with some classes, especially chemistry, and for a while I wanted to drop it,” she told The Royal Gazette. “But I ended up staying with it and passing. I just stuck it out.”Her 3.75 grade point average made her the salutatorian — second to valedictorian — for the June 29 graduation.“I talked about what it was like for me when I first came to CedarBridge and the accomplishments I was able to get out of it,” Ashley said. “I spoke a bit about myself, and wished the graduating class good luck in the future.”Words didn’t always come easily: Ashley, formerly of Sandys Middle School, had to battle a stutter that made “words jumbled” and presented a challenge in school.CedarBridge principal Kalmar Richards recalled Ashley as a student who had initially felt that she was “destined to fail”.Said Ashley: “My teachers gave me a lot of help with my classes, and that was a real plus.”In the case of chemistry, that meant getting to school early to work with her teacher, and studying over lunchtime.She describes herself as someone who is “okay with losing, sports-wise, but not academically”.“When I feel like I really deserve something, I work for it,” she said.Playing netball and basketball, and captaining her school basketball team, netted Ashley the Elite Athlete Award at graduation, along with scholarships totalling $4,750 — including the Bermuda College Scholarship, the HSBC Award and the PWC Award. She has also become an accomplished cellist.Looking to her future, Ashley said: “I want to be a doctor. I’m not sure yet what area, and I might also go for a degree in philanthropy.“I’ve worked so far on what classes I needed to get there. Now I need to find out what’s really right for me. I’m pretty sure I can handle it.”