Julia Tran named Revere High School Class of 2019 Valedictorian

This evening at Harry Della Russo Stadium Revere High School senior Julia Tran will take the stage and deliver her Valedictorian address.

Tran, an honors student and AP scholar with distinction, will graduate with 465 of her fellow classmates and, after her summer break, head off to the prestigious Ivy League School, Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

Tran, who grew up in Revere, is the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants that moved to the U.S. before Tran was born.

“Honestly, it’s a little overwhelming but at the same time I’ve never been one to focus everything on academics,” said Tran. “I’m no way the smartest or worked the hardest. Being the valedictorian was never my highest priority nor was getting super high grades. Through my whole high school and school career all I wanted to is try and find a passion and meaning. I still haven’t found that yet.”

While she may not have found her exact path to the future Tran said she is excited about attending Dartmouth in the fall.

“That’s exciting, right?” she asks. “It’s going to be cold though so if anyone wants to send me blankets I’ll send you my PO address in New Hampshire.”

Throughout her high school career at RHS Tran has compiled an impressive resume. She was a National Spanish Honor Society Plata Award winner, a Questbridge College Prep Scholar, Questbridge College National College Math Scholarship recipient, recipient of the Massachusetts Superintendent Award and a Ugo Evangelista Medal winner for excellence in math.

Tran said she’s leaning towards majoring in English and Literature once she gets up to Dartmouth but like most students her age she’s just glad to not have to get up in the morning for high school.

“I’m happy I won’t have to get up at 6 a.m. to go to school and sit through 80 minute class periods,” she jokes. “The one thing I think I’ve been craving is freedom and that has influenced a lot of my decisions and choices in high school like what classes I would take and clubs I’d join because it’s hard to find that in high school. I’m excited for more freedom in college. Most important part of any place is the people and I really do like the people here at RHS so I will miss all the people here.”

Tran lives at home with her mom, dad, grandmother and older sister and they are all excited she’s off to college–even if they’re not sure about the school’s prestige.

“When I told my parents where I was going they had no idea what Dartmouth was,” she laughs. “But I told them I had mostly a full ride so they were content.”

In the meantime Tran said she’s going to use her summer break to try and learn something new everyday before heading off to college.

“I’m going to work but I really want to create something new, start a new hobby, learn another language,” she said. “I want to learn something new every day–it doesn’t matter what–I just want to learn it like building a chair or making guacamole or learning how to roller skate.”

As for her fellow classmates Tran said a lot have gotten into really great schools and are going to do big things in life.

“You’re going to be reading in like 20 years about former students of this class and the things they accomplished,” she said.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.