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: I have committed to Cornell University.
Question 2: What will you major in?
A: English and chemistry.
Question 3: What’s your favorite movie or TV show and why?
A: I watch a lot of crime shows, particularly “Law and Order: SVU [Special Victims Unit]” on Saturdays with my mom. It’s just something I’ve grown up on, and, as strange as it is to have a crime show as a comfort show, it was always on, and my mom and I always watched it on Saturday nights.
Question 4: Are there any quotes you live by that guided you through your academic journey?
A: “What, like it’s hard?” from Elle Woods (“Legally Blonde” character).
Question 5: What extracurricular activities or hobbies did you enjoy in high school, and how did they complement your academic success?
A: My main extracurricular was founding a writing club on campus called Writer’s Alliance, and that really helped to foster another love of writing, different from what I did in middle school. It was more communal; it was more familial. And then I was also involved in Science Olympiad, which kindled my interest in science, and through Science Olympiad, I learned how to build bridges and fly airplanes, so that kind of ignited a love of science as well.
Question 6: What subject did others find hard, but in your opinion, was the easiest for you?
A: I wouldn’t say it was an easy subject, but I really enjoyed AP [Advanced Placement] Chem [Chemistry]. That was one of my favorite classes in high school. It definitely wasn’t easy; I spent a lot of nights studying and not sleeping, but if I were to pick one that I had the best memories of, it’d be doing labs with my labmates and my friends.
Question 7: What extracurricular activity did you struggle to balance with your grades?
A: I think Science Olympiad was the biggest time consumer during the winter.
Question 8: What did you sacrifice to maintain your grades?
A: I think maybe one of my sacrifices was choosing to take Art History instead of Art. It’s a really small thing, but in middle school, I was really looking forward to taking a ton of extracurriculars, but I realized that it would hurt my GPA, so I quit choir. I was a choir girl in middle school, I stopped doing all art stuff to take Art History, to take more academic classes but still not take a zero period.
Question 9: How did your surrounding friends/family support you throughout your high school years?
A: My friends and family have always been super supportive. They’ve encouraged me to write my book and they’ve encouraged me to create clubs and go do things. My parents have always paid for all my building materials, or when I wrote my book, they paid for a lot of the first copies so I could give them out to my friends. It’s called “Preserved In Pavement.” I think Accolade mentioned it in its senior issue as well. It’s a poetry book.
Question 10: Who is one teacher you are thankful for/ look up to and why?
A: Mr. [Thomas] Butler. He teaches sophomore English Honors and AP Literature [English Literature and Composition]. The first year he was on campus, which was my sophomore year, was also my first year on campus, and so I approached him with this club idea. We were both new to the school, and we didn’t really know what was going on, but he took a chance on me and said, “Yes, let’s do it.”
Question 11: What is one study habit you recommend to underclassmen?
A: Put your phone away; no Instagram. There’s a lot of apps that help you manage your time. One that my friend introduced me to is called Flora and it pretty much locks up your phone and then every time your timer goes off, it grows a tree so you can see what you grew after your study session.
Question 12: What is one piece of advice you would tell your freshman self?
A: Know your limits. Don’t do too much and know how to have fun, like go to homecoming games, school dances and sporting events. Don’t coop yourself up in your room and be like, “Oh, I need to maintain good grades,” because you can definitely balance those two. And when you’re creating your schedules, don’t think that you can do more than is realistic.
Question 13: How did you discover what you wanted to major in college?
A: One of the biggest things was in Experimental Design [in Science Olympiad]. That was this big monumental moment for me like, “Oh, I really like writing, and I really like English but I also really like the science that goes into it.” So writing up labs and finding different outliers, like writing about those things, made me really happy.
Question 14: If you had to go back to any moment of your life, when would it be?
A: I think junior year. People say it’s a stressful year, which it is, but I would say it’s this good balance between having underclassmen who you can advise and also having these seniors who seem so much more knowledgeable than you. You have so much to look up to, and in senior year, at least a lot of my friends took more AP classes, so the workload felt a lot bigger, especially in the second semester with senioritis.
Question 15: What are some of your hobbies and interests?
A: I really like to make jewelry, like beading.
