Kaylie Nguyen, Cyprian Way, and Jacob Lopez are the 2025 top scholars! All of these students have put in a tremendous amount of effort and perseverance throughout their past 4 years at this school.
Starting with our first contender for salutatorian, Jacob Lopez. Jacob Lopez has been in soccer, NHS, FCA, Student Council, and will soon be starting an internship at HartSci. Despite being a procrastinator with lots of obligations, Jacob has still managed to never get anything less than an A. He recalls, “I’m really a big procrastinator, and so my whole kind of leaving things to the last minute and then doing them in one go really won’t work for everyone. So, time management is the biggest thing that I could say to other people. Manage your time.”
Looking back, Jacob wishes, “…I wish I had been involved in more clubs. But the club environment is really growing at Sahuaro, and I think it’s a lot easier for incoming freshmen and people who are already here to join things.” He would advise other aspiring top scholars, “…when you take these challenging classes, yes, you’re in there for an A, but also, don’t forget that you’re there to learn. And, eventually, grades are not everything. And I think that it’s easier to get through those classes when you’re less focused on the grade and you’re more focused on actually learning. With that being said, make sure that you take as many APs as you can.“
The last thing Jacob wants to say is, “I hope that I helped some people as much as other guys helped me. Thank you to my friends for always putting up with me. I know that I can be pretty annoying sometimes. But I love you guys, and thank you for helping me out!
Our first salutatorian is tied with Cyprian Way, who is, coincidentally, Jacob’s best friend. They won best best-friend duo in senior superlatives and have been besties since the 6th grade. Jacob expresses, “…I think it’s kind of awesome that I’m going to be tied with my best friend, you know. We’ll go out there together, and yeah, I mean, it’s just an awesome opportunity. I’m looking forward to sharing that moment with him.”
Cyprian was more focused on the books during school, so he shared lots of his miscellaneous class experiences with us. Cyprian has taken AP World, AP Calculus, AP Literature, Computer Science, Automotive, Advanced Guitar, and more. His favorite was AP Literature because, “…it made me think, and this year, I figured out if I wanted to pursue English or math more, and it was English. Just reading and being able to understand other people through reading.”
To achieve this milestone, Cyprian would advise, “…the best thing is to get things in as soon as you can. Make sure you have fun still, because there have been moments where you work really hard, and then you forget to have fun, and you just get really sad and overwhelmed. But yeah, definitely have fun, work hard, and then take joy in the small victories. That’s a big one.” Another piece of wisdom he would give is, “Don’t be overly critical of yourself. Again, take pride and joy in the small accomplishments. Take your worries, anxieties, and troubles day by day. And then, when you finish out each year, just enjoy summer, enjoy the breaks that you have.” The very last thing Cyprian would like to say in his high school career is, “Don’t be afraid to be who you are. Don’t be afraid to share your opinion, even if everybody else disagrees with you. And just always strive to be the best version of yourself.”
Saving the (literal) best for last, our class of 2025 valedictorian, Kaylie Nguyen! As far as how she’s feeling…? “I feel like I’m in shock a little. It feels like, I don’t know, I’ve had a lot of friends that also are like top 10, top 5, so it just feels weird that we’re not just all at the same spot,” Kaylie remarks.
Kaylie was involved in various extracurriculars throughout high school, such as Student Council her freshman year and Robotics her sophomore year. Although Kaylie does have a reason for not continuing them, “I think since I took those towards the beginning of my high school career, I didn’t have that many AP classes yet. So, it was a lot easier for me to balance all my work, because then, these past few years, I’ve had so many AP classes and so much work, like, that’s why I didn’t do that many extracurriculars. So, I feel like I just took a lot more, like, the classes I took were a lot simpler, like, the workload wasn’t as much, so it just kind of worked out.”
Looking back, Kaylie reveals, “I think I probably should have gotten more involved. I feel like the last two years because I was focusing on those AP classes, I didn’t do extracurriculars. So, I feel like I should have gone to more sports games and school events, because I skipped out on those.” Some advice Kaylie would give to those wishing to follow in her footsteps is, “…you only take as many classes as you know you can do, because if you work, and if you put too many AP classes on yourself, then I feel like it’s gonna do more bad for you than anything. And then also just kind of knowing your limits, and then just putting in a lot of effort and knowing it takes a lot of time.” The last thing Kaylie would like to say is, “I just want to say thank you to all my teachers, and then, thank you for supporting me and just being there for me.”
These soon-to-be graduates are quickly approaching the date this coming Thursday, May 22nd, 2025, on the football field. Kaylie has been preparing her speech to give to her fellow classmates. This is a monumental event, and these top scholars should be immensely proud of themselves. We wish these 3 and all the graduating seniors the best of luck on their adventures post-grade. You’ll soon be an official Cougar Alumni!
