BHS valedictorian Phil Salazar to attend Stanford in fall; Liberty salutatorian: ‘I feel good about myself’

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

After 12 years, the moment has come at last.

Twelve years of school have led to this week, when all the graduating seniors of the Class of 2012 don their robes and march across the stage.

When they get to the other side after Saturday’s ceremony, they will be officially embarked on a new phase in life.

Some students will be relieved it is over. Others may look back on their experience at Benicia High School with fond memories — while looking toward the future with excitement.

Valedictorian Phil Salazar, 17, is one of the latter.

A lifelong Benician, Salazar has watched the city change over the years, and has changed with it.

He’s lived his entire life in the same house, with his father, older brother and grandmother. He went to Mills Elementary School, part of its last graduating class before closing down.

Now he’s preparing to move on, to college and the excitement of that new phase.

“High school, when you start out, it is a thrill,” Salazar said. “It’s a thrill, the rush of new freedoms. Everyone is starting to grow as a person.”

But the past two years have been about discovering new interests. And looking ahead

“High school is a place where you discover your interests, not just in classes, but the people you meet. You all help each other grow. I’ve really discovered things I want to do,” he said.

Last year, in his junior year at the high school, Salazar started hearing rumors about whether he would be valedictorian. That student is the one with the highest accumulative grade-point average over the last seven semesters of high school.

Salazar finished with a 4.4 — something like an A++.

“It was formally told to me this semester,” he said. “It’s a huge honor. Not so much for me, but that I am going to be able to speak in front of all my friends. It’s really humbling.

“I never would have imagined myself in this position.”

What will he say in his speech? Only “the important stuff that I want my friends to hear,” he said. “We’re getting to a time where we’re going to have this infinite amount of choices. It’s important to find the choices that are suited to you, but it is also important to challenge yourself.”

Salazar challenged himself daily at Benicia High. While his favorite classes were math- and science-related, he took art history and film production electives to gain a better appreciation for the arts.

The class he found most challenging was Advanced Placement Literature.

“The AP lit class, basically you discover the way you have been writing your entire life is flawed in some way,” he said. “Looking back, it has helped me so much, and I’m such a better writer.

“I feel so fortunate to have had such great teachers. They’ve made me want to learn the subject, and to fall in love with the subject. That’s what really sets Benicia High apart,” he said.

Salazar said he will study engineering at Stanford University in the fall. “What I really want to do, and I’m so passionate about, I really care about the environment,” he said. “I feel like my generation really needs to push that up on the agenda as something that requires our attention. The environment is vital to our existence. I want to be an engineer that can make the technology to improve the environment.”

Benicia High’s salutatorians — students chosen for best representing the school — are Bryan Huebner, Saniya Kishnani and Allison Kensiski. Liberty High School’s valedictorian is Paul Baker, and the school’s salutatorian is 18-year-old Sidney Avant.

Avant attended Liberty for the 2011-12 school year, needing quite a few credits before she could graduate.

“I needed 15 math credits, I needed World History, U.S. History, Econ, Government, English and had 40 elective credits,” she said.

She gives her math teacher, Chris Winder, a lot of credit for helping her. “He will joke with me like I’m his best friend, but when he’s scared that I’m in danger of failing, he becomes my first enemy. I don’t want to be around him at all because he keeps pushing me.

“I’m really grateful for him, even though I complained about him a lot. In the end he was doing the right thing.”

Avant said what she liked most about Liberty — which she “wasn’t comfortable” with when she arrived last year — was the “personal connection with everyone, teachers and students included, that you can’t get anywhere else. Everybody is connected, and I feel like I’m talking to my friends when I’m asking for help, not my teachers or my superiors. That’s really nice.”

At Benicia High, she said, she felt there was no interaction between the various groups of people. Liberty had a lot more interaction between groups.

“With Liberty, everybody is on the same level. Everybody is scared and stressed out, especially over the last couple weeks. We’re all starting our lives together and that really puts us closer.

“I feel like I can talk to anyone there.”

Avant graduated with the rest of Liberty’s senior class on Thursday and gave a speech to the other students.

“I put in my speech I learned more in my senior year than all the other years together, because it was just so erratic and sporadic,” she said. “It was never consistent, but Liberty is consistent.

“Once I got to Liberty I could just sit down and say, ‘OK, this is what I need to do to change my life,’ and I did it. It’s not only changed the course of my life academically, but personally. I’m not so lost anymore. I have a plan. I didn’t know where I was going. I feel good about myself.”

Avant knows what she wants to do next. “A couple months ago Liberty had a guest speaker come from Marine World.”

She asked what it would take to become a handler of exotic animals. “That’s where I want to be. He told me about this great college in Los Angeles (Moorpark College) that is basically a small zoo. There’s a program that helps people do exactly what I want to do.”