#4 Kevin Chan

Kevin Chan playing the french horn prior to his last ban concert at MHS.

Rebecca Broomstein

Ranked fourth in the class of 2012’s Top Ten, Kevin Chan is graduating Malden High School with a grade point average of 4.04.
Chan has maintained a spot in the top three of his class since freshman year, and only recently moved  to fourth.  His sudden move was, in fact, intentional; for, in his own words, he was not interested in giving a speech.  Every year, the top three students of the graduating class is expected to write and present a speech at graduation.  Chan prefered not to, so he allowed himself a bit of wiggle room this year in order to push back his class rank.

Chan is an exceptionally focused student who spends the majority of his time and effort on his school work.  Taking a total of eight advanced placement classes in the course of four years, much focus was needed.  In tenth grade, Chan took on his first AP, US History.  His junior year, he took AP Language & Composition, AP Calculus BC, and AP World History.  This past school year, Chan took the AP Physics and AP Chemistry classes, and decided that he would take the AP Spanish and AP literature exams along with his others.  Chan was able to score a five on every exam with the exception of calculus BC.

As you can imagine, Chan spends a great deal of time on his homework, and still manages to take part in extra curricular activities.  Chan is a part of MHS’ school band, which has been a part of his life since grade school, as well a colorguard.  Anyone who is involved in the school band can agree that the intense program can be very time-consuming.

In addition to band and colorguard, Chan ran cross country in the fall and both seasons of track every year of his high school career.  He has proved himself  to be a truly beneficial member of MHS’ track team. “Kevin is really helpful because he remembers how things are supposed to be done,” says coach David Londino. Chan is a reliable member of the team and is notorious for helping develop the freshmen members into better runners, thanks to his impeccable attention to detail. Londino grew very fond of Chan’s help throughout their 12 seasons working together, and describes him as “practically another coach.”

Chan accepted two All Scholastics awards for indoor and outdoor track at the Athletics Awards Night held on May 30, 2012, making this his third year consecutively winning it.
It’s remarkable that one student can balance so much and maintain such a high academic rank.  Family matters factor into the motivation that keeps Chan going.  For one, he looks to his mother for inspiration.  She has worked extraordinarily hard her entire life to get to where she is and works even harder to make sure that her children are taken care of.  “Her one hope in life is that I work just as hard and get through college,” explains Chan.
Chan can admit that his high school schedule was not easy. “No, of course, it was tough,” he exclaims. To him, the amount of work and activities were reasonable.  Chan states, “I didn’t bite off more than I could chew. I definitely could have done more.”

He also explained that watching television and playing video games can in fact improve your grades.
Your brain needs downtime in order to rejuvenate itself so it can obtain and process more information later.
Also, he suggests that if you are going to pull an all-nighter, do not bother with a power nap.  There’s nothing “powerful” about sleeping through an alarm.