Wildcat
Kenneth Wu: ValedictorianThursday, June 07, 2012 By Kenneth Wu
I serendipitously attended Uni after being rejected from Pali’s math and science magnet. Fortunately, I avoided the misleading magnet (according to my former friends at Pali, the math department sucks and they had to make a pop-up book for geometry!). For me, attending Uni is one of my greatest decisions in my life; I would have never expected to take Calculus BC and under division college math courses such as differential equations and linear algebra in 10th grade and 12th grade, respectively. Boldly self-teaching both parts of Physics C (Mechanics and Electromagnetism) was possible because Uni allowed me to finish the required mathematics requirements for Physics C. I am truly grateful that I attended Uni. Beside Uni strongly precipitating my mathematics and science foundation as a materials engineer, Uni introduced me to many highly intelligent people like last year’s valedictorians, Daniel Fishman and Injee Unshin. I enjoyed the camaraderie with these individuals, and they informed about the myriad of interesting clubs and challenging classes. I never imagined that I would know many talented individuals in one school. Uni, of course, has its share of problems. My biggest complaint is the bathrooms. Many stalls have no locks! Other complaints include the inflexibility of the class schedule, the annoying phone calls, cutting the AP Physics class, and of course, the senior portfolio. Sadly, a chapter of my life is about to end. I would like to thank all of my teachers and especially to the ones that have written letters of recommendations for me (Mr. Fazio, Dr. Robbins, Mr. Josephson, Mr. Baker) and the club sponsors (Mr. Baker, Ms. Aarvig, Mr. Flores, Ms. Henderson), as I prepare the obstacles and uncertainty at UC Berkeley, I can’t stop pondering about whether I will meet my classmates in the near future or never meet again. Though I had a few missteps in my high school life, I without a doubt do not regret attending Uni. |