Most students start college with intentions of making and maintaining straight A’s but few actually do it.

Two traditional students, Darian DeBreaux Bridges and Skyla Ja’Til Staton, and two nontraditional students Stanton Andrew Smith and John Adam Hylton have all managed to make it through their respective majors using their various study habits to become the class of 2012’s 4.0 graduates.

Bridges, 22, is a native of Richland, Mich., and continued excellence from high school. He graduated Richland High School as one of the valedictorians and a member of the National Honor Society.

“I chose A&T because after doing research I was impressed with the engineering program,” Bridges said.

This second generation Aggie graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering and credits his success to the people around him.

“My family has always pushed me to succeed,” he said. “There were also a few professors that I worked extensively with while at A&T.”

Staton also credits her family and faculty for her success.

“They always encouraged me to do my best,” she said.

She is a 22-year-old native of Tarboro, N.C. She received her degree in fashion merchandising and design. While she was an honor student in high school, making straight A’s as a college student wasn’t in her original plan.

“I made all A’s my first semester and I attempted to keep it up from then on,” Staton said. “I also love fashion so I went above and beyond in those classes.”

Something else that helped was making the act of studying a hobby.

“Every minute of down time was devoted to learning,” she said. “Even when I shopped I was constantly quoting vocabulary learned in fashion and business classes. My shopping experiences have never been the same.”

Hylton found that incorporating what he’d learned into his everyday life was key to his success as well.

“I would take an hour at night right before I went to bed to study, I found that I was most productive then,” he said. “The next morning as I was going through my routine, I would attempt to recall everything I studied before I went to bed.”

Hylton, 29, is a native of Rocky Mount, Va., earned his degree in biological engineering and came to N.C. A&T after being laid off.

“We had a house (in Asheboro) and my wife had a job, so we weren’t moving,” he said. “A&T happened to have a great engineering program and it was close enough for me to commute.”

The proximity to family is also what made Smith pursue his mechanical engineering degree at A&T.

“It was the best school for engineering that was close, affordable and close to family,” he said.

Smith, 33, is a Greensboro native who credits his success to his family’s support and effective time management.

“Time management is key and prepare to sacrifice some of your personal life,” Smith said about maintaining a perfect GPA.

Now that they have received their undergraduate degrees, Bridges, Smith and Staton all have plans to attend graduate school. Bridges will pursue his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan. Smith will attend A&T, while Staton will work toward her M.F.A. in fashion at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

On Monday, Hylton will start work at the John Deere factory in Des Moines, Iowa in the environmental engineering division.