Patricia Luong is another member of the top ten in the class of 2016, and has been a very active student throughout her career.
Luong has chosen to take this career to University of Massachusetts at Amherst in order to study in their Commonwealth Honors College. Luong said she wasn’t sure what she would pursue later on, but is considering a major in public health, and possible minoring in either education, sociology, or urban studies. ¨All [Luong knows] is that [she is] extremely passionate about community organization and advocacy¨.
Luong has left an impact on her peers and on her teachers, including Martin Berryman, a chemistry teacher at Malden High School. The most striking quality he found in her as a person was her empathy and generosity with other students, along with her perseverance. ¨If there were times [Luong] was struggling, with AP classes, college applications, whatever it was, she was still able to work through that¨, stated Berryman. While he sees the skills she had in many students, ¨in her, it was much stronger¨.
Luong has always worked hard at what she does, whether it was academic or in her extracurriculars. In her sophomore year, Luong participated in both the marching band and the crew team, both experiences that ¨gave [her] a sense of belonging¨ and a feeling of having a second family. Whatever activity she committed herself to, Luong has always ¨had this intrinsic desire to succeed¨.
One of the most memorable pieces of advice she has been given at MHS was in the form of a Maya Angelou quote: ¨I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel¨. This quote has impacted Luong as a person, stating that it reminds her ¨that [it is] okay to be yourself even if it goes against the majority¨.
The title of being in the top ten does require much hard work, though. Luong states that there isn’t necessarily a rewarding feeling about being a good student, because she feels that ¨being a top student or not being a top student is not an indicator [of] intelligence, work ethic, or worth¨. Rather, Luong feels gratitude when it comes to her grades, because she has ¨been extremely fortunate to be in the right circumstances that pushed [her] to work hard¨.
However, keeping up this hard work has not always been easy for this student. One of the great challenges that Luong has faced, despite the hard work and discipline of being a top student, was the death of her best friend Candy Lee. ¨There hasn’t been a eureka moment when everything clicked and [Luong] was suddenly okay,¨ she stated, ¨but [it has] been three years of self care and accepted support from others that make each day a little bit easier¨. It has been this kind of work that has kept Luong going throughout high school.
Altogether, leaving MHS leaves Luong with a mix of feelings — terror, excitement, anxiety, elation, bewilderment, and nostalgia. She says that while ¨high school was an interesting part of her life, [she] is ready to move on¨, and ¨start the next chapter in [her] life¨.
