Senior Eli Paul has earned the title of valedictorian for the class of 2019.

Along with earning a 4.675 GPA, one of Paul’s biggest accomplishments during his high school career was becoming one of two people in the world to earn a perfect school on the AP Physics II exam.

He also came in second place with his team at the American Computer Science League All-Stars competition in Rhode Island and has been a part of the National Honors Society and the Mu Alpha Theta math honors society.

When asked about any classes or teachers that made a large impact on his life, Paul commented, “AP Physics I with Sherger. It was the first physics I ever took and definitely helped me improve.”

Some of his outside experiences during high school that fueled his interest in the math and science included a summer camp at the Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics in Amherst Massachusetts.

“It was a six-week intensive residential math camp,” says Paul, “I made a lot of good friends and a lot of parallel concepts, proofs, abstract algebra, and graph theory.”

When asked what was the hardest part of high school, Paul replied that it was “maintaining the motivation to work through everything” and emphasized the importance of balancing doing school work and taking breaks.

In the fall of 2020, Paul will be studying at the California Institute of Technology.

“I’m going in undeclared but will maybe study physics,” Paul says. While unsure of his major, Paul expressed interest in a more mathematical side of the subject including Condensed Matter Physics (CMP) as well as relativistic physics.

To conclude Paul was asked if he had any advice to give to underclassmen.

“Do you work as soon as you [get] it,” he said, “but it’s important to let yourself take breaks.”

We’d like to congratulate Eli Paul on his amazing high school accomplishments and wish him the best of luck in his post-high school career!