By Ed Allen, Editor

Westlake High School graduating senior Angela Lin offers food for thought for any senior who aims for the high honor of valedictorian that she earned this year through hard work and a zeal for challenges.

“To the seniors who might be valedictorian: Don’t make the title of ‘valedictorian’ a priority,” Lin says. “Soon enough, no one will care that some fluky combination of AP (advanced placement) courses, lenient teachers and possibly raw intelligence spat out your name for first or 50th in your class. Learn for the sake of learning, and to find out what you want to spend your life learning, because you will spend the rest of your life learning.”

That kind of insightful approach to her education has already paid big dividends in the form of numerous scholarship offers. Among them were  California Institute of Technology, University of Chicago and Rice University. Lin said she chose Rice, which offered her $15,800 per year, because it simply seemed to be the best option.

“Also, Rice is the only school of the four that actually offers the major I want cognitive science (a combination of psychology, philosophy, linguistics, neuroscience and computer science),” Lin explains, noting her plans are to major in cognitive science while also fulfilling pre-med requirements. After that, she hopes to get into the M.D.-Ph.D. program and “stay in academia forever, doing research and possibly teaching.”

Lin, the daughter of Westbank residents Mike and Sylvia Lin, acknowledges that her reply to a question about her fondest memories at WHS may sound “nerdy,” but she maintained that Latin conventions rank at the top.

“For some strange, sadistic reason, I actually like taking the academic tests –  but also, I love the sense of camaraderie that arises so quickly when a bunch of vaguely acquainted Latin students are thrown together in close proximity for a few days,” Lin says.

Not surprisingly, Lin’s favorite extracurricular activity at WHS is also rooted in academia – Certamen, a Jeopardy-style Latin competition. She feels that it taught her “all sorts of obliquely useful information” and enriched her grasp of Roman culture and the Latin language.

“For example, girls should not wear togas because the only women to wear togas were prostitutes [they also wore red wigs and had Greek names],” she explains. “If I am spluttering and enraged, I am apoplectic; if I interrupt myself [as I suppose I might, in such a troubled emotional state], why, that’s aposiopesis. And if I, in an attempt to calm myself, take a moment to ponder my bellybutton, that’s omphaloskepsis.”

Asked what being named valedictorian meant to her, Lin says, “The title ‘valedictorian’ is something my relatives can put in my obituary when I die – no one will ever be able to take that away from me. In fact, my mom has recently taken to showing me all the obituaries in the Austin American-Statesman that mention the title of “valedictorian.” The frequency is depressingly high.

“Morbidity aside, being named valedictorian gives me a vague sense of validation, but other than that it doesn’t mean much.”

Although some valedictorians may have regrets that their pursuit of excellence may have forced them to miss out on activities that other high school students cherish, Lin is clearly not one of them.

“I don’t really feel that I’ve had to make any sacrifices for the sake of keeping my grades up,” she explains. “At least for me, activities and schoolwork tend to expand to fit whatever time I have. If I have two weeks to complete a project, it takes two weeks; if I have two hours, it takes two hours and the result is still of comparable quality. If I’ve forgone activities that other high school students enjoy, it’s probably because I wasn’t interested. I have always found time to do what I want – sometimes to the detriment of my grades, much to my mother’s chagrin.”