Belgreen valedictorian Hogan blessed with multiple positive role models who influenced her in school and in life

One thing you can say about Belgreen High School’s Class of 2026 valedictorian, Mackinley Hogan—she made the absolute most out of her high school experience.

A quick look at her daily schedule demonstrated that point clearly.

“Most nights, I’d get home around 9 after a game, study until 12, go to sleep and start the next day over,” Hogan said.

The daughter of Charles and Stacey Hogan, Mackinley was a four-year member of Belgreen’s softball and basketball teams, a Belgreen Ambassador since 9th grade, a Junior Leadership graduate, the school’s Girls State Representative in 2025, and she still found time to maintain a disciplined study schedule that landed Hogan at the top of her class.

Hogan will enroll at the University of North Alabama in the fall and major in Nursing. She plans to become a pediatric nurse practitioner. 

UNA made Hogan an attractive offer, including a Honors Scholarship and a Leadership Scholarship as valedictorian, meaning her education will, for the most part, be paid for as a result of her hard work in high school. She also received a Tennessee Valley Scholarship from TVA.

And she’ll live in an on campus dorm with her best friend McKenna Fisher as her roommate.

Her interest in the health care field was, in part, the result of three years of health-related classes at the Franklin County Schools Career Technical Center.

Hogan loves being around children, so her chosen career path will be a combination of two things she’s passionate about.

“I love being around children, seeing their imagination, their creativitity. And I always knew I wanted to help people get better and treat them, so pediatric nursing will merge my top two interests together,” Hogan said.

“My mom was also a major inspiration to me. She’s a NICU nurse at UAB Hospital in Birmingham,” she added.

Always a perfectionist with her grades, Hogan didn’t start high school with the goal of being valedictorian.

“I just wanted to finish high school with a good GPA and a good class rank,” Hogan said. “I guess some time in 10th grade, I started thinking about making it a goal to be valedictorian. And that helped encourage and motivate me, especially when some subjects seemed really hard. It helped me not to slack off, and continue to study and learn, even with a busy schedule.”

Even though she finished first in her class, Hogan said academic success never came easily for her.

“My success is a testament to my study habits. I spent a lot of nights studying for tests and it paid off, but it never came easy to me,” Hogan said.

In addition to her parents, Hogan said she’s been blessed to have several other individuals have positive influences in her life.

Her oldest brother, Drew, has served as a role model and was always willing to help her with school work.

“I have two older brothers and one younger sister who’s still at Belgreen. There’s a pretty big age gap between me and my oldest brother Drew,” Hogan said. “He’s been a great role model and was always there to help me whenever I asked.”

Among the many teachers who helped and inspired her, Hogan is especially appreciative of her chemistry and biology teacher, Collier Cantrell.

“He’s the first one I think of who really had a big impact on my life—not just because of what he taught students in his classroom, but he was also my basketball coach and he’s very involved in our church,” Hogan said.

“His character and values are what’s important to him. To see how he serves the Lord and how he’s inspired me to do that in my life. How he teaches is how he coaches—he inspires a lot of people, me included.

“But everyone at Belgreen makes it their number one priority to put kids and their futures first. I could say what I said about Mr. Cantrell to describe 20 other teachers at Belgreen,” she added.

That positive spirit and support in Belgreen doesn’t stop with the school’s faculty. The relationship the Belgreen community has with the school makes a tremendous difference in students’ lives, Hogan explained.

“It’s really one big family who will continue to show up for you, encourage you to achieve your goals, whether in sports or academics. I’ve never seen any Belgreen fundraising event empty. The community is consistent to always show up and show out and it really makes you enjoy living in a small town where everyone pretty much supports everyone else’s endeavors. I love Belgreen and I would love for my kids to one day go to Belgreen and be raised in the same encouraging environment I was,” Hogan said.

She began at Belgreen in first grade, so she and her classmates grew up together and she’ll miss them being a daily part of her life.

“It’s kind of sad, especially when I look at my class. There are kids who were there in my first grade class. We lost some, added some, but most of them were part of my life almost every day.

“It’s bittersweet realizing that’s over and that I won’t see the same people I grew up with and developed so many relationships with,” Hogan said.