The school recently announced seniors Kyleen Liao and Naveed Kasnavi as valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively. They hold the two highest weighted GPAs among the senior class.
Liao first learned that she received this honor when her mom woke her up from a nap, saying that they needed to visit the school immediately. Upon their arrival, assistant principal Matt Torrens promptly started questioning her about her attendance issues, as if she was in trouble.
“I was really nervous at first,” Liao said. “I was like: ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, I don’t have any attendance problems?’ until he finally dropped the act and told me I was valedictorian.”
Liao has a GPA of 4.6136 and took 10 AP and 6 Honors classes. Aside from academic classes, she was involved in robotics for six years and was on the school’s FIRST Robotics Competition team for four years. She is also the vice chair of the Green Committee and co-president of the CS and AI club.
Outside of school, Liao conducted AI and environmental engineering research for over two years. Her research applies machine learning models to predicting wildfire pollution levels and determining the best time to implement prescribed, low-intensity fires, which are meant to burn away small leaves and brush. She also participated in science fairs and spoke as a spotlight speaker at the NeurIPS 2023 conference. She committed to Stanford University for Computer Science.
Kasnavi, who holds a GPA of 4.6087, was also surprised to find that he was salutatorian. He took 17 AP and Honors courses and was on the school’s MSET FRC robotics team for four years. He committed to UC Berkeley and plans to major in Mechanical Engineering.
