While most schools narrow down two students to represent their class at graduation, Jericho High School will celebrate nine of the class’s 313 students this June.
Seniors Ryan Cheung, Logan Cohen, Vishrut Goyal, Lilly Horowitz, Lucas Kane, Max Scharf, Sophia Tarasenko, Jerry Zhang and Christopher Zhu will be recognized as the top of their class.
Most neighboring districts select one valedictorian and one salutatorian, but Jericho is unique in that it names so many in the coveted top-student spot. Last year, the high school had 13 valedictorians representing the Class of 2024.
Gregory Sloane, the district’s curriculum associate for school counseling, said the school uses students’ unweighted grade point averages to determine who the valedictorians are.
“Our valedictorians are our students who have gotten an A+ in every single high school class that they’ve taken over the course of time,” he said.
Sloane said that when it comes to weighted grade-point averages, some classes, like advanced placement classes, are weighted differently to reflect course rigor. An unweighted GPA does not account for the differences in course difficulty, as every course is calculated the same.
An unweighted A+ in all courses would convert to a 4.0 GPA, Sloane said.
Sloane, who has been involved in the valedictorian selection process at Jericho for the past several years, said it is a long-standing one. In 2023, the school broke its record with 15 total valedictorians. The school does not recognize a salutatorian.
“It’s a broader celebration, instead of narrowing it down,” Sloane said.
Sloane said this year’s valedictorians are “accomplished” students, with many committing to Ivy League and top-ranked colleges, including Cornell, Stanford, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Each of them, he said, will have time to speak at graduation next month.
“They’re all such impressive kids,” he said.
