By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

Benicia High School’s Class of 2013 has walked across the stage, sending the next generation of teenagers into young adulthood.

As he prepared last week to give his speech, Valedictorian Nimarit Singh Walia, 17, worried a little about the outcome. “I’ve never been in front of such a large crowd before, but at the same time I am extremely honored to be valedictorian, and to be giving this speech,” he said.

Honored, yes. Surprised, no.

Nimarit had a feeling he would end up valedictorian — he had one more Advanced Placement class than his fellow classmates, and he has the highest accumulative grade point average for four years of high school: 5.0.

But then, he’s probably had that feeling for a long time. All through high school, Nimarit has been number one in the GPA rankings.

And his academic achievements go back even further.

Nimarit skipped kindergarten, and his parents enrolled him in Kumon, a highly regarded math and reading program, so “I just started a little earlier and already knew what I needed to know for first grade.”

It helped that from an early age he has had a fascination with mathematics.

“Ever since I was in (Matthew Turner) Elementary School, when the teachers would say it was time for math, I’d jump up and get all excited,” Nimarit said. “In third and fourth grade the teacher would work with all the other students, through the book and lessons, and I would just be on my own working through the book by myself. I’d always be about a half a book ahead of everybody else.

“I kind of self taught myself in elementary school,” Nimarit said.

Later he would jump ahead — “I kept accelerating myself that way,” he said — so that by sixth grade he was studying at a seventh-grade level.

During the summers of seventh and eighth grades, he went through the Academic Talent Development Program through the University of California-Berkeley. “I took Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 over the summers of seventh and eighth grade. Basically I advanced myself that way, and in eighth grade I ended up taking Pre-calculus Honors,” a high school course.

Not every school subject has come easily for Nimarit. History proved most challenging.

“I never really had any connection with it,” he said. “When I got into high school, some of the teachers I had, they didn’t fully teach it, they just went through the book work. There was no one who really motivated me to have a passion for history.”

That changed when he took Advanced Placement U.S. History in the 11th grade with Edward Coyne. “He has a unique sense of style in teaching. I never really knew any history until that point,” Nimarit said.

“I actually had to study. Usually I absorb information well and I am able to retain it. That was the hardest class, where I had to put in a lot of effort to receive an A in that class.”

Academics have not been all of Nimarit’s life at Benicia High. Having played both tennis and soccer from a very young age, he joined the varsity tennis squad as a freshman and the varsity squad as a sophomore.

Of course, that made for some long days when some of his practices involved a two-hour drive to Hilmar. “I would come home from school, then drive straight there and practice for two and a half hours, then drive back,” he said. “I would be home at about nine o’clock, and I would be exhausted, but I would still have to stay up late at night to do my homework.

“It was a real challenge, but I got through it,” he said. “It kept me active.”

Nimarit is headed to UC-Berkeley in the fall, where he is sure to remain active, majoring in applied mathematics.

“I’ve applied to Haas Business School, and hopefully I will get in,” he said. “I’m looking at finance, but I’m not fully sure. There’s so many options that you can do with business. I feel like I really want to find what I want to do in college.”

For the students of Benicia High, those graduating this year and those yet to graduate, Nimarit has a message.

“Never give up. Even if it gets really hard,” he said. “In my junior year I was really overwhelmed with all the coursework I had. I had all AP and Honors classes. The main thing that motivated me was that I knew high school was just a stepping stone toward your future.

“You find out who you are and what kind of friends you like and who you want to surround yourself with. At the same time you find out what your real interests are, like if you like math or science or something. You can get exposure to the real world, and you can start working toward your ultimate goal,” he said.

“The transition from high school to college is just, instead of just having a dream, you are actually working toward that dream. You can almost reach out and grab it.”