The 2023-24 Valedictorian and Salutatorian were announced on Mar. 19. Daniel Erani was named Valedictorian and Virginia Liang was named Salutatorian. The valedictorian is a student who has the highest grade point average in their class, and they give a speech at their graduation ceremony. The salutatorian is a student who typically gives an introductory speech at a graduation ceremony. Both Liang and Erani will be presenting a speech on the date of the ceremony.

Salutatorian:

In her freshman year, Liang was faced with the challenges of organizing events and fulfilling her duties of class president because of COVID-19. One event that turned out to be a success was the movie night she planned for the grade.

Liang never gave much thought into achieving the rank of salutatorian, but she started to think about it in her junior year.

When asked if she was prepared for her speech, Virginia described the array of emotions she felt.

“I feel like that’s more of a shower thought like, ‘Oh what am I going to say in my salutatorian speech.’ It’s nerve-wracking, but I’m more excited. I hope whatever I come up with can help people in the future”

Liang stated that balancing life with school was a big reason she was very successful throughout her years in high school,

“I would find ways to destress, whether its talking to your friends, family, or like listening to music, just have that for yourself. Just know yourself, know what you can handle.”

“Some advice would be to get more sleep. I feel like sleep is really overlooked for me personally, especially towards at the end of junior year. When you’re not getting enough sleep for a long enough time, it accumulates and just makes you worse. It won’t improve your performance”.

The Glen Echo congratulates Virginia Liang for her accomplishments.

Valedictorian:

For Daniel Erani, the title of Valedictorian means even more to him. Erani’s older sibling was declared Valedictorian in 2018, and it was instilled in his brain that he would have to work very hard from freshman year till the end to achieve the title.

Erani stated that the title of Valedictorian meant a lot to his mom, but to Erani he had something else on his mind throughout his four years.

“I was mostly excited about getting into the school I wanted to get into. It has a tangible reward and it was a lot more rewarding to me”.

When asked if he was prepared for his speech. Erani had a lot to say.

“For me, it’s out of sight out of mind. I’m more worried about getting work down and my grades right now. I have a very mixed feeling about it, I don’t like making speeches but I also feel like I have an interesting perspective on just like high school and how it went for me so hopefully I can figure out how I can figure out how share that properly. I can give like a nice speech but also I don’t want to motivate and inspire anyone to go crazy. It’s a nice conclusion I guess.”

Academically speaking, Erani had an arduous daily schedule having to balance school and theater. But Erani gave pieces of advice that Liang presented.

“Finding that balance was just very very important to do well and enjoy high school because I do enjoy high school. A lot of it was making that time for friends and making that time to do work. I get to sleep at 10:30, and I make that a big priority. Going to bed early is important to me because it makes me more productive while also not compromising myself.”

Erani also gave his experiences of navigating through school and his personal life.

“There’s a certain threshold of intelligence needed to get those grades and then there’s a big pool of people who can achieve it, the rest of it is managing your time, and especially for me balance. If you are constantly working, you are going to be miserable. That was me in junior year, I was focused pretty hard during the weeks, and I also talked on the phone with my friends a lot. On weekends I would take a weekend off and enjoy it and then I would be reenergized and be refocused,” he asserted.

Overall, Erani and Liang found their junior year to be the most difficult academically but it was having that balance and managing their time very well that made them reach their goals and achieve these titles.

The Glen Echo congratulates Erani for his accomplishments.