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Call them
hard workers or even overachievers, just keep one thing straight:
"We aren't nerds," insist the 10 members of the advanced placement
calculus class at Richmond High School.
Individually and as a group, they certainly are remarkable.
All eight seniors in the class -- Fayepou Saechao, Agnes Russell,
Lizette Avila, Chai Saechao, Rodolfo Orozco, Edgardo Cervano-Soto,
Jose Manjarrez and Champy Saiprasert -- were accepted to UC
Berkeley. Orozco and Cervano-Soto also were accepted to Stanford.
And the class's two juniors, Diya Nahar and Fernando Velazquez, have
completed every math course Richmond High offers and will have to
pursue any senior-year math studies at a community college.
The eight seniors -- including valedictorian Manjarrez and
salutatorian Cervano-Soto -- walked the stage at Wednesday's
graduation ceremony at the Richmond Auditorium.
With yellow sashes depicting their honor status draped around their
necks, the group goofed around at the back of the procession before
entering the auditorium.
Orozco, who also served as class president this year, was emcee of
the graduation and introduced Cervano-Soto and Manjarrez as his best
friends before each stood up to speak.
Cervano-Soto fired up the crowd with a quote from Muhammad Ali
before encouraging his classmates to stand tall and never give up.
"All the sacrifices, the breakdowns, the surges of strength have
culminated in this night," Cervano-Soto said. "Graduation is not a
beginning or an end; it is a continuation."
The class's collective achievement would be impressive at any high
school, but it is even more impressive coming at Richmond High.
"Normally here we don't have good AP scores," said Niral Shah, the
calculus teacher and chairman of the school's math department.
This also was the first year that Richmond High offered the more
advanced Calculus BC course rather than Calculus AB.
So there must be some secret, right?
"That's what the math teacher across
the hall asked me," Shah said. "There's no secret."
Nothing beyond hard work, working together and having someone to
guide them.
The students concur: "A lot of hard work." "A lot of time." "Tears
and sweat." "Coffee and all-nighters." "Teamwork."
Preparation for the big push through calculus began early in their
high school careers. Shah said he has been teaching the same 10
students for the past few years.
"Most of them started together three years ago in Algebra II," he
said. "I started with 25 to 27, but people dropped out along the
way, of course."
The intention was that all the students would pass the AP calculus
test by the time they were seniors; getting them to that point took
some dedication by students and teacher alike. The students took the
test in May, though they won't know officially whether they passed
until July.
Shah said that during the previous school year, the group completed
the pre-calculus class in one semester, giving them an extra
semester to begin calculus. And the 10 students put in extra time
any way they could, coming to the Richmond High math wing during
lunch and after school.
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"He
stayed here with us till 8:30 p.m. once," Chai Saechao said of Shah.
"We would call him over the weekend."
The students found they had something
in common as they accepted the challenge of completing calculus
together.
"We're a small family. A lot of us knew each other, and our bonds
grew stronger in this class," said the Stanford-bound Orozco, who
enjoys taking jabs at his classmates who had to "settle" for Cal.
But it's all in good fun, and there is an obvious closeness among
the students.
"We're not afraid to ask each other for help" in math or in other
classes, Avila said.
"There's a lot of group support," Cervano-Soto agreed.
The peer support was vital, the students said.
"I struggled so hard, and I cried, oh my god," Avila said.
"A lot of us didn't think we were going to make it, actually," said
Orozco, who received plenty of support and motivation at home. "My
mom always said she wanted me to have more than she had."
That they did make it is a source of pride and encouragement for the
school.
"Getting an entire class, even though it's a small one, into
Berkeley is quite an achievement for us," said counselor Margaret
McGuire. "It means a lot to the school. Those kids worked really
hard in a class that has a tough curriculum. I think that curriculum
would match up with any high school in the area."
Said Principal Orlando Ramos: "It shows what can be done when you
push to the highest standard and get down to it and don't make
excuses."
The confidence the students have gained in completing the course is
evident.
"I feel like if I can handle this class, I can handle those (college
courses)," Saiprasert said.
"This taught us to be more organized, sort of training for later in
life and going to college," Orozco said. "Things like time
management, hard work."
"I wondered, 'Why am I taking math when I'm not going to use math in
the future?'" said Avila, who plans to major in both political
science and pre-law and wants to become a human rights lawyer. "Just
the skills I learned, the hard work is going to help with the career
I want."
Those skills and the ambition to acquire them are what sets the
group apart, Shah said. All the seniors in the class are graduating
with honors.
"I wouldn't say they are unusually talented," he said. "They've had
training in a certain mentality. Just based on the college
acceptance alone it indicates how hard they've worked."
And it sets the bar for students to come. Those who will take
calculus next year have the same mind-set, Shah said.
"It's easy for a lot of teachers to think our kids are different and
can't accomplish as much," he said. "Other teachers are starting to
see what we can do. They're not just the best at Richmond High
School, they can go to Stanford, they can go to Cal, they can go
anywhere."
Just as important as getting accepted, "I wanted them to be prepared
to graduate," Shah said. "Wherever they graduate from, I'll be
there." |
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