The Class of 2024 produced 39 valedictorians, and The Accolade interviewed each to reflect on their high school journeys and thoughts. This is a full version of the Q&A, of which the preview is included in our May magazine issue. Any remaining full-version Q&A will be posted in alphabetical order throughout the week in the Feature section.

Question 1: Which university did you commit to?
Answer: New York University.
Question 2: Once you go to college, what do you think you’re going to major in?
A: For most of my schools, I’m majoring in something media or communications-related or advertising and marketing.
Question 3: In high school, which teacher helped you the most?
A: I think Ms. [Lindsay] Safe and Ms. [Cristian] Bueno especially because I’m in the yearbook so I’ve been with Ms. Safe since my freshman year. She’s been there for me a lot over the past four years, and I’ve always gone to her for advice. I’m also in [International Baccalaureate] IB, so I’d do math with Ms. Bueno and she was always really comforting because Ms. Bueno’s always super encouraging to all her students.
Question 4: So now that you’re a valedictorian, how do you feel, and what do you think it means to be one?
A: I feel really relieved because it’s been one of my goals since freshman year. So knowing that all of my hard work paid off, and that I was able to achieve valedictorian and seeing all of my hard work present itself this year, it’s just really relieving, knowing that I can end my senior year like that.
Question 5: Since you’re a valedictorian, can you give some advice to the underclassmen?
A: Don’t procrastinate. I know that’s really basic, but stay on top of all of your work. And grades don’t matter that much, but just try your best and don’t take Advanced Placement [AP] Physics. Don’t take it. Don’t take it because that was one of the ones that cut it really close to me. Also, another piece of advice is to talk to your teachers. If you’re struggling, make sure you’re reaching out to your teacher to get help with things. They’re always there to support you and I feel like I’ve talked to a lot of my teachers to get extra help when I needed it. And it really paid off.
Question 6: What was the hardest class you took in high school?
A: I think AP Physics because I’m not a huge science person. [And] I thought it would be a lot more math-based. I prefer math a lot more, but it was still pretty difficult to grasp the concepts because, for AP Chemistry and AP Biology, we’ve all taken a biology or chemistry class in our freshman and sophomore years. But physics was like a whole new science that we had never seen before. So for AP Chemistry and AP Biology, a lot of people have the foundational knowledge or fundamentals that they get from freshman and sophomore year, but physics was a lot different. So I think just adjusting to that in the beginning of the year was a little hard.
Question 7: What was your favorite class in high school?
A: I think my favorite class is Theory of Knowledge; it’s one of the IB courses and I just thought it was really interesting. We had a lot of Socratic seminars and discussions about knowledge, how we get knowledge and what contains knowledge, and I just found that really interesting and different from what I’ve learned before.
Question 8: Once you’re gone, what do you think you’ll miss the most about Sunny Hills?
A: I think I’m gonna miss the community because I feel like all of our events and students are so spirited and fun, and just the energy of Sunny Hills is really enjoyable, so I think I’ll miss having a close-knit student body a lot since college has a lot more people.
Question 9: What are you most excited about college?
A: I’m excited to become more independent because I think I’m going to be further away from my family, so I feel like that’s gonna let me grow more as a person and [help me] meet new people.
Question 10: Who are your biggest supporters?
A: I think my parents were really my biggest supporters because they’ve always encouraged me to try my best and work my hardest, and they had a lot of experience with my brothers. I feel like they were really helpful whenever I needed help with any assignments, or just time management, and they’ve always been super supportive of my extracurriculars. Yearbook takes up a lot of time and my parents are just always really supportive and take me to all the games that I need to cover or just what wherever needed to be.
Question 11: In 10 years, where do you see yourself?
A: I see myself graduating from grad school, so I am probably working or finishing up school or trying to find what I want to do.
Question 12: What’s your proudest achievement in high school?
A: Honestly, yearbook. I’ve been on the yearbook team since freshman year, and I’m the editor-in-chief right now. So I think seeing all of our hard work and effort become a reality when we get the book and see everyone on campus with their books is really rewarding. All the hours and hours spent designing, photographing and writing were worth it.
Question 13: What do you look forward to in the summer?
A: This summer, I’m really looking forward to just having fun with my friends and family because I feel like during past summers, I was just so worried about things like college, college applications and doing things that will help us in the future. But now we kind of already reached the point that we’ve been working towards for our high school. And we can just relax a bit. And I’m also excited to get ready for college like dorm shopping and everything with my parents and just getting ready for the next part of my life. So all the stress is gone.