Whoever said perfection is overrated, has never met the 21 valedictorians from this year's graduating class at Jericho High School.
Whoever said perfection is overrated, has never met the 21 valedictorians from this year's graduating class at Jericho High School. Every single one finished their high school career with straight A+'s in every class, all four years, but not one would say it was easy.
"It was hard. There were many nights where I wondered why I was putting myself through this," said Jericho High School Valedictorian Riya Shah. Shah is now accepted to Princeton, one of many prestigious institutions that value the academic achievement in this elite group. They are way more than their grades though.
"We have National Merit Scholars; we have musicians at the highest level," said Jericho High School Principal Brian Cummings. The school also has future problem solvers. Valedictorian Franklin Lee is headed to Stanford to sort out healthcare issues and transportation problems with A.I. Two in the group are headed to Georgetown.
"I'm a global health major in their school of health," Harnoor Joneja said. All of them have made sacrifices at some point in the busy social lives and activity schedules that most high schoolers have. Twenty-one is a lot of valedictorians, but it has to do with the system in which they calculate the scores. The system uses the unweighted letter grades of students, meaning technically, they could have all A+'s and not taken any honors classes.
They do have tips for those in high school and are still in the thick of it.
"By getting my SAT done within sophomore year, I didn't have the same level of stress," said valedictorian Kevin Liu. Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo,Grieving father of murdered 17-year-old girl sues Meta and NYC in $50 million lawsuit
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