Senior year comes with many milestones — college decisions, prom, graduation — but for Jonathan Mehrotra (12) and Michael Wang (12), another milestone gets added to the list — being crowned valedictorian and salutatorian.
Mehrotra and Wang have been friends for years. They have gone to the same schools, taken many of the same classes and even joined the same clubs like Science Olympiad and the Math Team. Part of their success academically comes from their friendship and broader friend group.
“I’ve known Michael since I was 6, I’ve known Tyler [Yang (12)] since like sixth grade, so all of us are like super close friends,” Mehrotra said. “And I feel like that actually helps us because we like push each other to excel in ways that we wouldn’t if we weren’t so close, and I feel like I’m constantly being pushed to do my best because I see all my friends, like succeeding academically and that inspires me to also do my best.”
A solid support system is essential for high school. During the changes that come with growing up over these four years, knowing that there are people to rely on facilitates stability. For Mehrotra and Wang, their families were an important source of support during their academic careers.
“[My family will] support me on pretty much anything I’ll do, so they asked me if I wanted to [pursue] a high rank at all … I said I wanted to, so they put all their force into supporting me,” Wang said. “And they gave me support when I think I needed it the most. Sometimes I see my parents [will] stay up with me, I’ll be up at like 2:00 A.M. and my dad will like, bring me a soda randomly and … that’s kind of touching.”
Because class rank is based on grade point average (GPA) over the course of high school, achieving one of these titles comes from years of dedication to school, but not necessarily utter perfection. Even for students trying to get to the top of the class rank, their transcript does not have to be a string of perfect As; however, a string of APs can help them get there.
“The way the [class rank] system works is like a B will cut you back a lot and I got one in Spanish in eighth grade, so originally me and my parents all wanted to … just kind of settle,” Wang said. “But … then [I] just pretty much just locked myself in by just filling the schedule with as many APs as physically possible.”
Over the course of their high school careers, Mehrotra and Wang challenged themselves to take the hardest versions of classes they could. The two students took over 20 AP classes each, delving deeper into core subjects or exploring new ones like microeconomics.
“I like to think of the [work as] a couple more hours every day for like three or four years of my life for something that will come back in the future,” Wang said. “For a better college, potentially a better job that could be more time in the future, more money to support my family. I just think that there’s a lot more future benefits for just a couple more hours.”
To maintain high grades alongside their rigorous coursework, Mehrotra and Wang had to be dedicated. However, for the top two this did not mean constantly studying and sacrificing for the sake of their GPA. Rather, they had to learn how to maintain a healthy balance between studying and relaxation.
“Truthfully, I think when it comes to like studying and motivation for me it comes in waves,” Mehrotra said. “So like when you are feeling super motivated then I try and get work done. But like I acknowledge I’m human and like there are some days I just don’t feel like doing homework. When I’m too tired, like from my swim practice, to do anything I try to give myself a break on those days and not be too hard on myself. And I realize like it’s OK and, I’ll just push harder.”
After living through four years of high school, Mehrotra and Wang have learned a lot of lessons. The top two advise future spartans to challenge themselves and embrace the experiences they will encounter along the way.
“Definitely like try to challenge yourself and take the hardest class you can [but] don’t like do so much that you burn out,” Mehrotra said. “[A]nd like besides extracurriculars just hang out like with your friends and [do] stuff outside of school. So like don’t make school your whole life, where you’re just staying up till like 2:00 A.M. every night doing homework and then you don’t have a life … that’s not like a healthy way to go through high school.”
After finishing their high school journeys, the next step forward for Mehrotra and Wang will be going off to college. Mehrotra has committed to the University of Pennsylvania and Wang is considering Brown University. The top two intend to continue taking challenging classes in their future academic endeavors, and encourage their fellow spartans to push themselves and discover their passions.
“That’s what my parents always say: always try your best because even if you fail, you can’t really regret anything,” Wang said. “And at the end of the day … you will pretty much only need what you actually care about, what you like to do. I think that’s more important than any kind of education. Just finding what you like to do.”
