Valedictorian Nick Real
Some background of this ballin boy’s big break
Senior Nick Real posing for a picture
Senior Nick Real is one of El Modena’s Class of 2018 valedictorians. He currently has a stunning 4.9 weighted GPA. A few weeks ago, he was invited to an awards ceremony where he found out about valedictorian. Real said, “I didn’t think I was even close to getting valedictorian. I was very surprised.”
Valedictorian was never really a goal for him. Instead he focused on maintaining straight A’s because of his drive for success. He saw college looming in the background and figured good grades would help with the selection process. He, “…applied to some pretty lofty schools.”
Mr. Benner’s AP World class introduced him to what AP courses required of him and helped him down his path to valedictorian. He takes all AP classes: government/economics, psychology, statistics, chemistry, and literature/composition. He also lettered in basketball and is currently involved in a number of extracurriculars, such as Project Give and Grow and National Honor Society.
Real claims discipline and self-motivation are key to balancing all of his high school activities. To keep up with the vast curriculum being taught in honors and AP classes, he put a lot of extra time into his homework and studying.
Mr. J serves as one of Nick’s role models on the El Modena campus. “He’s a genius and he’s so young. He already has his masters degree.” This inspired Nick to continue and progress in his studies.
Real’s advice to all the underclassmen: “Make you sure you get a lot of sleep. Sleep deprivation is not helpful. I learned this the hard way.”
