Jun Park and Emma West have been named Memorial’s first valedictorian and salutatorian after both finishing with 5.0 GPAs.
Park will be attending Stanford after choosing the West Coast school over Yale, while West is going to Oklahoma State. Both have earned scholarships for their education.
West has been aiming for the top since before she even began her high school career, setting that as one of her goals.
“I’ve been locked in since freshman year, like I’ve known what I want to do I know. I’ve wanted to be first or second since freshman year,” West said. “And so all through high school it’s been on my mind, so I’ve always known what grades I needed and made sure I got them.”
For Park, orchestra has been a constant he could rely on during high school. Park has earned all-state orchestra honors every year he’s been at high school.
“When I joined the orchestra here in high school, I was able to foster a new community where people like me who love music and classical music, and can sit together in class and work on pieces that we enjoy and just make music together,” Park said. “So I’m super fortunate that I’ve been able to be a part of this family and make these amazing memories with the peers of my class.”
West has been involved in several activities inside and outside of school, including student council, tennis, junior forum, volunteering with special needs in Young Life Capernaum and more.
“I’m involved in a lot of community service, it’s very busy and I’ve been like that since like freshman year,” West said. “I’ve always had to learn how to manage my time. Like in the evening, I’m always somewhere doing something.
“I have to manage it all, but it’s been fun because I like being involved in that stuff. And it also makes me more proud of having the GPA and the rank because I know that I wasn’t just a school person, I wanted to be a well-rounded person.”
Park has also kept himself busy, having a job teaching children how to play the violin. He also played tennis at Memorial.
“It definitely gets hard often, keeping a balance,” Park said. “I think I just have to remind myself what the end goal was, life beyond high school, and making sure that I can get scholarships and go to a college that can help support me and my family.”
The competition was incredibly close for the top spot, with both having an identical GPA. It came down to individual class grades.
“I was super surprised,” Park said. “It’s an incredible honor to be named as Memorial’s first valedictorian, so I was super pleased that it landed on me. It’s an honor that I get to represent Memorial High School, because it’s been a long four years of academic preparation and tests and stuff, so I’m super happy that the hard work has paid off.”
Park was inspired by teachers who stayed and worked hard for the students.
“When I was at Rider, definitely Ms. (Jane) Ramirez was an inspiration, she would stay after school, two, three hours just to help students get concepts,” Park said. “She was also the UIL math coach so she was able to help us out in any way that she could.”
MEMORIAL’S SUMMA CUM LAUDE GRADUATES
1. Jun Park
2. Emma West
3. Florances Qiu
4. Evan Liang
5t. Emily Blake
5t. Maliya Hadley
7. Georgia Bindel
8. Joanna Chen
9. Lilly Mason
10. Julisa Rodriguez
11. Mason Schreiber
12. Jacob Cabler
13. Mallory Galyean
