Allow me to paint the scene. It is a regular Tuesday during the middle of Ethan Yang’s senior year. As the clock strikes 6:40 AM, Ethan’s alarm clock rings and wakes him up for school. He gets ready and throws on a hoodie, jeans, and the first pair of sneakers he can find (his favorite are his Air Force ones). After about 15 minutes, he leaves his house for school and gets there at 7 AM. He doesn’t usually eat breakfast and rushes to his zero-period Orchestra class that meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
During zero-period Orchestra, Ethan plays the violin and is 4th chair. He has been playing the violin for 11 years. After Orchestra, he walks up the stairs to his first-period AP Literature class; his favorite piece of writing that he read in this class was the novel Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Ethan doesn’t mind reading and writing, but he admits that he just prefers STEM. Going back down the stairs, he walks into AP Physics, which in his opinion is a doable class but is definitely his hardest class of the day. However, as stated before, Ethan is a STEM person, so he finds the material taught in physics to be more interesting than the content in his other classes. After talking to his friends at break, Ethan has third-period AP Macroeconomics/AP US Government (depending on which semester this Tuesday is). He believes that this is a significant class because of how applicable it is to society and finds it interesting to learn about. Then, he goes to AP Statistics; his favorite class where he gets to learn from his favorite teacher Mr. Layana. Ethan states that “all students should take AP Statistics their senior year.” For lunch, Ethan goes off campus with his friends for a poke bowl from Tokyo Central. Although the school day is almost over, he still has a long day ahead of him. He goes back to school for his 5th-period class where he TAs for Mrs. Ward’s Chemistry class. He chose to be a TA for Mrs. Ward because he had Mrs. Ward for Honors Chemistry and AP Chemistry and really enjoyed being in her class.
For his last period, Ethan has Varsity Tennis. Depending on whether or not he has a home match, away match, or practice, his schedule may vary, but let’s assume that it is a practice day, which most of the time it is. Ethan is a starter doubles one player and co-captain of the Men’s Varsity Tennis team, which means it is his job to lead practices. After warming up, the team plays practice matches against each other. He has been on Yorba Linda High School’s Men’s tennis team all 4 years of high school and made varsity his sophomore year, but he has been playing tennis for 7 seven years. His tennis journey started from watching his sister play from the sidelines, which inspired him to pick up the sport. Practice ends around 5 PM.
After tennis, Ethan will likely have community service for a few hours. He is the President of Red Cross, President of ACEing Autism, President of the Orange County Rescue Mission (OCRM), Vice President of CSF, and Vice President of NHS. These positions require him to contribute many hours of community service per week: he has done approximately 2,000 hours during high school. After any community service he might have, Ethan goes home to eat dinner before starting on his homework. He usually has 1-2 hours of homework per night and studies for 1 hour if he has a test the next day. He talks with his friends until midnight, and he goes to bed.
It is clear that Ethan Yang is deserving of the title “Valedictorian.” Ethan Yang (12) encourages high school students to “Do more outside of school extracurricular wise. Try to take initiative on things you enjoy and create something out of that: start a club or an organization. Do something you are passionate about.” Congratulations to Ethan Yang for being one of the two Valedictorians for the class of 2024!
