While most students solely focus on the academics in high school, senior Hansen Shieh was awarded the title of salutatorian of the Class of 2026 after focusing on more than his grades. Sheih not only worked hard in his classes and pushed his Robotics Team to the world championships, but has treasured the strong connections that he had made with people throughout his time at Westford Academy. Come fall, Sheih will be majoring in Applied Math at Yale University.
Q: Who is your biggest inspiration, living or dead?
A: Probably my parents because they always take care of me and even [though] I’m not the best kid or not the best behaved, they’re still there for me to support me. So I found that really inspiring.
Q: What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment during high school?
A: Not based on academics or anything but just [in general one of my greatest accomplishments is] based on [how] I’ve been able to create some relationships with people I really treasure, and I think I’ll keep beyond high school.
Q: Which teacher at WA would you say had the biggest impact on you?
A: I think one teacher is probably Mr. Norander. He was my freshman history teacher, but he made the class a lot more fun and I think that was something that kind of stuck with me throughout high school: teachers that aren’t always boring.
Q: What advice would you give to younger students?
A: I’d tell them that school isn’t everything. It’s good to focus in school and get good grades, but it’s not the end of the world if you get one bad grade, and it’s also good to focus on stuff outside of school, like other activities.
Q: What is one challenge you had to overcome?
A: I think time management. I remember when I was a freshman I [would] feel like school or homework would take up a lot of my time and I wouldn’t really budget my time right. Then I just started getting older and I started clearing up my schedule more and trying to plan stuff out ahead of time so that I could actually get to do other activities.
Q: What is one regret that you have from high school?
A: I regret not doing DECA because I’ve seen the social media and photos, and I think it’s really fun but also really useful because it’s learning to actually talk to other people, connect,and go into business, which is something that I never tried.
Q: What is your favorite memory from high school?
A: One good memory I had, which is pretty recently, [is with] the Robotics Team when we went down to Houston to [compete in] a world championship. That was super fun, and the whole time was just a good bonding experience. Also, our team did really well, so that was something that I will always remember.
Q: People consider being salutatorian a great achievement, what is one time where you did not succeed?
A: One time I didn’t succeed was probably my freshman year [when] I was doing these math competitions and I remember this one competition I studied most of the year for and I was spending hours on it every day, but then I ended up doing really poorly, and not even close to as good as I hoped. So, I kind of took that as a lesson and the next year, sophomore year, I got another chance and I think I made up for my freshman year.
Q: What made you realize that Yale is the perfect fit for you?
A: I didn’t really realize it until I actually visited a couple weeks ago, but I think the community there is just really welcoming. I think it’s not as boring or as nerdy as some people would probably expect, but they have a pretty good social life. They have good food places around and I think they embrace a collaborative space and really value a community between other people.
Q: What would you like people to remember about you?
A: Hopefully they can remember me for just trying to be a nice person.
