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 have you committed to?
Answer: University of Pennsylvania.

Question 2: What will you major in?
A: Political science.

Question 3: Which teacher helped you the most throughout your high school career?
A: Definitely Mr. [Scott] Rosenkranz. He’s the IB [International Baccalaureate] coordinator, so I’ve had the opportunity to work very closely with him inside and outside of the classroom. And he’s really developed me as an intellectual thinker, as a student and as a leader.

Question 4: What does it mean to you that you are named valedictorian?
A: Obviously, this is a very, very high honor. I think this is kind of just recognition for the immense hard work that I put into maintaining high grades and putting in a lot of effort into all my classes.

Question 5: What advice do you have for underclassmen about maintaining their grades?
A: Establish good relationships with your teacher. Those will really help you like a class better, and when you like class, you’re able to do better in it. I also think when you have stronger relationships with your teacher, there’s more opportunities for you to do extra work to get your grade up, or for them to even change your grade if you really need it. So, I think that those relationships are foundational to getting good grades.

Question 6: What was the hardest class you took in high school and why?
A: AP [Advanced Placement] Calculus BC; that’s mostly just because I’m not much of a math person. I’m more of a humanities, English type of person. I took IB Math that year as well, so I was taking two math classes and it was pretty difficult to manage the rigor of AP Calculus BC. But luckily, I had a lot of good friends in my class who helped me understand it better.

Question 7: What was your favorite class in high school and why?
A: I think my favorite class was Theory of Knowledge because the material of the class was just so much more different than other classes. It allows you to truly think about different perspectives and apply that knowledge to various fields of study. It was also one of my only discussion based classes, so we had a lot of Socratic seminars where we’re able to discuss our thoughts, and I thought that was really beneficial to my development as a thinker and as a student.

Question 8: What will you miss the most about Sunny Hills?
A: I’ll miss my friends and the relationships that I’ve built along the way. I’m no longer going to be able to see the people that I’ve been so close with every single day.

Question 9: What are you most excited about for your new journey in college?
A: Spreading my wings and becoming more independent. I’m going to become more of an adult in college and see where my professional interests lie and kind of see where my future lies. I think college is the right place for that.

Question 10: Who was your biggest supporter throughout high school and why?
A: I think my biggest supporters throughout high school were definitely my parents. They’ve been really understanding of my time commitments and how many extracurricular activities that I have to commit time to. They’ve been really accommodating with that and they’ve also just been really trusting of me and my ability to maintain my grades and I think that has been their biggest form of support.

Question 11: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
A: As of now, I do want to become a lawyer. So in 10 years, hopefully, I’ll have graduated from law school and I’ll be practicing law somewhere.

Question 12: Who is your favorite teacher and why?
A: Mr. Rosenkranz; I’ve worked really closely with him. He’s one of the most intelligent teachers that I’ve come across, and he really inspires me to kind of grow in intelligence and think about things more deeply. I can tell that he is someone who is very smart and thinks deeply about a lot of things, and that’s something that I really want to strive to emulate in the future.

Question 13: What is your proudest accomplishment in high school?
A: I think just getting into the colleges that I’ve gotten into because that kind of just recognizes the hard work I’ve put into throughout high school.