On Wednesday, May 14, the NDB community gathered in the Moore Pavilion for the annual Academic Awards Night, which honors a select group of students for their academic excellence. Department awards, scholarships and merit scholarships were awarded, but the night concluded with the awaited announcement of the Class of 2025 valedictorian and salutatorian.
This year, Maggie Templeton was awarded the title of valedictorian, with Nicole Fong being selected as salutatorian.
After receiving the title, Templeton reflected that she felt immense surprise to be announced as the valedictorian. She went into the night without any expectations, so this announcement was incredibly exciting for her.
“I definitely was surprised because … I never like to expect anything, so I don’t get disappointed … So, yeah, I was really surprised,” she said.
She was chosen based on her grade point average along with their involvement in both the NDB and local communities. Templeton’s exceptional reading and writing skills were noted at the last three Academic Awards nights, where she earned Outstanding Achievement recognitions in English I Honors, English II Honors and AP English Language and Composition. Not only did she most recently win the Outstanding Achievement award for AP Calculus AB, but she also demonstrated versatility through receiving religion, social science and science awards.
In addition, she spent her junior year on the Ambassador Board, where she helped with prospective student events, before assuming the role of Link Crew Board president, where she collaborated with other members to plan freshmen events. Outside of school, she is a site captain for Pacific Beach Coalition cleanups, encouraging others to spend time picking up trash on Saturday mornings
Fong was similarly very excited to receive her title as salutatorian because of all the hard work she devoted to her coursework throughout the years.
“I mean, it reflects all of the hard work I have put into my academics throughout high school … and the rigor of my course schedules … I am definitely excited to get recognition for all of that,” exclaimed Fong.
She has especially excelled in mathematics throughout her time at NDB. She received outstanding achievement recognition for both AP Calculus BC and AP Statistics, and assumed a leadership role in NDB’s Mu Alpha Theta chapter after being inducted into the honor society during her sophomore year.
At the start of the spring semester, California Scholastic Federation (CSF) Adviser Helen Ciernick nominated Fong for the CSF Seymour Award, a prestigious honor for those who commit themselves to service and scholarship.
This past summer, her interest in technology inspired her to secure a 10-week internship at an AI company. In her free time, she volunteers at her local library to help people with printing and other computer-related tasks.
Templeton and Fong share common ground as swimmers, and both earned scores on the PSAT that recognized them as National Commended Scholars by the College Board.
Accompanying the tremendous accomplishment of receiving these titles of academic excellence, they are given the opportunity to give speeches at graduation.
“I’m excited to be able to be a representative of our class at graduation and write a speech to … kind of connect with our class for a final time,” expressed Templeton.
As graduation approaches, they look forward to attending prestigious universities in the fall. Templeton will be attending Middlebury College in Vermont, and Fong will be heading to the University of California, San Diego in California.
