PHOTOS: See the top local high school graduates in the region

The Dayton Daily News is celebrating some of the most talented students in the class of 2021, spotlighting valedictorians, salutatorians and “graduates of distinction” from dozens of local high schools.

These are students whose hard work produced four years of academic excellence. Now they’re taking the next steps toward achieving their dreams of being doctors, teachers, business owners and astrophysicists.

The students are headed to more than two dozen colleges in Ohio (many to Sinclair, UD and Wright State), but also to schools all over the country. Some of these local grads will attend MIT, Notre Dame and BYU as well as six of the eight Ivy League schools.