Roman Arreola will be celebrated today as the Class of 2020 Salutatorian! “It is a nice title, but it was never something I actively strove for. Yes I wanted a flawless report card, but it was so that I could demonstrate mastery of the courses to myself and not so that I could outrank my peers. Maybe if I had not received a few Bs in my freshman year, I would have coveted the title more,” Arreola said. Balancing good grades, sports, a social life, multiple AP courses, on top of college applications is not an easy task. Arreola acknowledged that it was okay to not do it all in order to have enough time for himself. He will continue his studies this fall at UC Santa Barbara!

Roman’s advice to her underclassmen:

“I probably struggled most with discipline. If you could develop a habit of keeping yourself accountable, even when tempted to choose the most convenient route, it will help out a ton.

Come senior year, I abandoned my role in a couple sports teams over other personal goals. Junior year however, I had to work around a tight schedule, and be unwilling to compromise my time for distractions. It’s important to sit down sometimes and acknowledge that you won’t have time for everything. You ask yourself how many hours of sleep you actually need and which assignments you could afford to skip without having your comprehension/grade suffer much.”