Ashwin Baweja NORTH BRUNSWICK — Over 450 students will be graduating from North Brunswick Township High School on June 20 during the 37th annual commencement ceremonies.
Roughly 97 percent of students will attend a two- or four-year college, enter the work force full time or join the military, while the remaining students are still deciding their futures.
Valedictorian Ashwin Baweja will speak to his fellow students at the Sun National
Bank Center in Trenton. With a grade-point average of 4.7648 as of the third-marking period, he is at the top of his class, well deserved, considering his academic and extracurricular career at NBTHS.
“It’s something I’ve worked for throughout high school, but I feel like there are a lot more important things like how you do in college and the connections you build,” he said.
Baweja has taken Advanced Placement Computer Science, English Language, English Literature, Spanish, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Statistics, Calculus BC, United States History, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, and Psychology, as well as numerous honors courses over his four years.
Alice Huang “Tests are important, but being able to apply what you’ve learned is more important,” the 17-year-old said. “You need to be able to build connections with those around you to succeed.”
Baweja played soccer for three years, and has been involved with the Chess Club, the Mathletes, the Chemistry Olympics and the Future Business Leaders of America.
Outside of school, Baweja volunteers with the North Brunswick First Aid & Rescue Squad and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick.
He will now attend the University of Pennsylvania in the Roy Vagelos dualdegree program in life sciences and management. Ultimately wanting to go pre-med, he will study biology, finance and health care management.
“Don’t worry too much about grades; worry about learning and do what you’re passionate about,” he said.
Alice Huang was selected as the salutatorian, with a grade-point average of 4.6472 through the third-marking period of this year.
“It feels good to know you work for so long and get a good result from it,” she said. “I’ve learned that hard work actually pays off.”
Huang has taken Advanced
Placement Calculus BC, European History,
United States History, English Language, English Literature, and French.
A student of the piano, she now concentrates on the violin, having been in honors orchestra for four years.
She also played volleyball during her freshman and sophomore years.
Huang has been a member of the Human Rights Coalition, Key Club, Chemistry Olympics, The Banner newspaper and the National Honor Society while at the high school.
Outside of school, she has volunteered at the New Jersey Museum of Agriculture and her Chinese school.
“It’s really hard to summarize all four years of high school onto one page,” she said of the difficulty of writing her speech. However, she will focus on the memories she’s experienced while moving on to her next venture.
“You have to find what you actually want to do and keep doing it,” she said.
Huang will be attending Duke University in North Carolina, possibly to study chemistry and business.
Prior to graduation, on June 7, 142 students received $82,000 in scholarships during Senior Awards Night. Contact Jennifer Amato at [email protected].