‘Everyone deserves it’: La Jolla’s top-performing high school graduates share thoughts on their achievements
Eight seniors graduating from Bishop’s, La Jolla Country Day and La Jolla High receive honors for their high grades and other accomplishments.
Eight seniors graduating from La Jolla high schools have been honored by their principals for their top grades and achievements.
Before they head to universities in the fall to continue their studies, the scholars shared their thoughts on their success.
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The Bishop’s School
Bishop’s Harvard Cup goes each year to the senior with the highest grade point average. Eli Browne took the award this year with his 4.76 GPA.
“It’s a really cool honor,” Browne said. “It’s a nice way to cap off high school.”
Browne, who will attend Stanford University to study linguistics and cognitive science, challenged himself throughout high school but said the Harvard Cup distinction “just happened.”
“It was never my goal to be first place.”
In fact, “you shouldn’t aspire to actually become valedictorian,” Browne said. “It’s more fulfilling to take the classes that interest you and just do your very best in those classes.”
The Bishop’s School in La Jolla held its 2023 commencement ceremony on its quad June 2, awarding diplomas to 131 seniors.
Bishop’s awarded Will Keefe its Michael W. Teitelman Loyalty Cup, given to a senior who demonstrates loyalty, excellence and integrity in all aspects of student life.
Keefe played multiple sports for Bishop’s, participated in speech and debate and was a member of the school’s peer support group to provide mental health assistance to others.
“I’ve done a lot of different things around campus,” he said. “It’s been a really great experience. I’m definitely going to miss it a lot.”
Keefe said he is inspired by his peers. “It’s the community and those around me that really drive me to try and do as much as I can in my community and help out as much as I can.”
Keefe will attend Georgetown University to study forest service.
La Jolla Country Day School
Siddarth Das was La Jolla Country Day’s top senior GPA earner, finishing high school with a 4.75.
Das now will head to UCLA to study biochemistry.
La Jolla Country Day School awarded 122 diplomas to its graduating class of 2023 during a ceremony June 2 on the University of San Diego campus.
He advises future seniors that “it’s more important to strike a good work/life balance.”
“I’m really against being the guy who’s always studying, studying, studying, because it can be really detrimental to mental health,” he said.
Das said he’s grateful to capture Country Day’s top spot and that “it’s nice to know that hard work actually paid off in the end.”
Still, he said he takes the honor “with a little grain of salt, because at the end of the day, it’s just a number.”
Reunions at Bird Rock, La Jolla and Torrey Pines Elementary give the teens a chance to celebrate their graduation with former teachers and classmates, current students, parades and old photos and yearbooks.
La Jolla High School
La Jolla High has a five-way tie for valedictorian this year: Greg Baldwin, Alyssa Bilinsky, Celeste Moreau, Arianna Roberts and Daphnie Tseng all earned a 4.89 GPA.
The distinction “feels great,” Tseng said. “It shows a lot of commitment and obviously hard work and family support.”
The tie is an added honor, she said, because she’s known the four others for years. “I’m really glad to celebrate this.”
“I still feel shocked,” Roberts said. “I thought it was impossible based on the classes I took, but … here we are.”
“I think we’re all really hard-working, really smart,” she added.
“I still feel shocked. I thought it was impossible based on the classes I took, but … here we are.”
— Arianna Roberts, La Jolla High School co-valedictorian
“I don’t really feel like much of a change [as] valedictorian,” Baldwin said. “I’m still a student.”
Moreau said: “I didn’t have any pressure to keep up the GPA for valedictorian,” noting that La Jolla High keeps the rankings secret until the last three months of senior year. “It was more just [wanting] to get good grades for college.”
Bilinsky said she “did not expect it whatsoever. I’m really excited.”
She and the others said several students were only 0.01 point from the top and that the honor should be extended to more. “Everyone deserves it,” Bilinsky said.
All the valedictorians but Moreau will attend UCLA. Moreau will attend Cornell University.
Baldwin plans to study electrical engineering, Bilinsky molecular biology, Moreau human development, Roberts math and economics, and Tseng physiological science. ◆
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