Courtesy of Saratoga High School

Grace Liu and Luke Zhang are the valedictorian and salutatorian of the senior class respectively.

Some of the top students in the Class of 2025 are being recognized at Senior Awards Night on June 3. Heading that list are Grace Liu as class valedictorian and Luke Zhang as salutatorian. 

Liu holds the highest weighted GPA of her class at roughly 4.7, mainly a result of excelling in 14 AP courses and five Honors courses.

The news of being named valedictorian came as a surprise to Liu when she was summoned to her guidance counselor’s office. There, the administrators shared the announcement with both her and Zhang’s families, complete with donuts to mark the occasion.

“Honestly, I was super surprised when they announced it,” Liu said. “I was just trying to get good grades throughout school and it was really exciting when it all paid off.” 

Liu attributes her high grades to the consistent study habits she began developing in middle school. By practicing a method called active recall, a study technique which prioritizes retrieving the information from your memory rather than passively rereading notes, Liu said she was more able to avoid making many silly mistakes on her exams — the downfall of many test scores. 

Aside from her studies, Liu was also heavily involved in research throughout high school, as well as the green team and green committee clubs on campus.

Zhang was also surprised when he learned that he was ranked second in his class with a weighted GPA of roughly 4.6 after taking a total of 12 AP and five honors classes. He has also been a member of the VEX Robotics team and served as president of the team, as well as participating in various math and physics competitions.

“I don’t think there was anything particularly unique about how I studied,” Zhang said. “I didn’t have the best study habits all the time, there were definitely a lot of sleepless nights.”

Liu is committed to Johns Hopkins University for biomedical engineering while Zhang is going to attend Carnegie Mellon University for computer science in the fall.

“Although I am grateful I worked this hard in high school,  I don’t think grades are everything, and you can get a lot from working on things outside of school,” Liu said. “If I could go back, I probably wouldn’t spend so much time studying and stressing about my grades.”