Upstanding student, Diego Reyes ranks #1 for his incredible grades and hard work. He demonstrates the importance of pushing through procrastination and the challenges of a full AP schedule.
As the valedictorian, Diego believes that managing his time each day greatly influences who he has become. He sees time as a valuable resource, something we can invest in to shape our lives, stating, “If one is wise, they spend their time reading, studying, or working harder, but there are two sides of the coin and if one decides to waste their time with distractions they will end up having very different fates. Remember whatever you trade your time for, you become. You buy life with time. If you want to change the quality of your life, you have to change how you spend your money, which is time.”
Diego credits his success to “everyone who has helped me along the way, my family, my friends, and God,” which helped him to achieve a GPA of 4.40. He has come a long way since middle school and has achieved his dream of being accepted into Stanford.`
Having taken a variety of advanced classes including 14 AP courses, Diego is now ready to pursue engineering in college, elaborating “I’m eager to learn more about mechanical engineering, because it is such a broad topic that will allow me to explore all the spectrums of engineering.”
During his graduation speech, Diego plans to emphasize the importance of looking ahead and never giving up, regardless of one’s background. He firmly believes that we should not let others’ opinions hold us back, because our potential is limitless. Diego wanted, “to go to Stanford for the ‘what if’, what if I could be something greater than I am today, what if I’m able to do something that my ancestors were not able to do, or something my siblings or cousins couldn’t do? What if I could do something great?”
Joining Diego among the top academic achievers of the graduating class is the 2024 Salutatorian Annabel Sebastiani, who has recently committed to UCLA where she plans to study political science but is an undeclared social science major. Annabel credits her achievements to “challenging [herself] academically by taking rigorous classes” and her mom “for always being super supportive. She would always just give me little incentives to complete things, and when I had achievements she would be like “Let’s go to dinner!”
She will miss “knowing everyone in [her] classes and having small class sizes,” saying she will, “also miss playing high school sports and having close relationships with [her] teachers.”
Annabel has taken an outstanding 11 AP courses and says if she were to give incoming freshman advice she would say, “To make friends with the people in your classes, so that you can help each other with the workload.” She also emphasizes the importance of making friends who also care a lot about school, “so you always motivate each other to achieve your goals.”
