Overcoming the trials and tribulations of high school and reaching graduation is an accomplishment in and of itself. However, senior Niklas Ang has taken this achievement a level higher, earning himself the coveted title of valedictorian for the Class of 2026 after four years of hard work and dedication. This fall, Ang plans to major in Biomedical Engineering at Harvard University.
Q: Who is your biggest inspiration, living or dead?
A: I feel like my biggest inspiration growing up was probably Ash Ketchum from Pokemon. He doesn’t give up, and that was honestly something that I’ve really liked, since childhood.
Q: What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment during high school?
A: Probably getting my third degree black belt. That was something that I was really working hard towards ever since I started taekwondo, and I think just being able to know that when I put my mind to it and work hard, I can get there. I feel like I’ve always been a lot less inclined to sports growing up, but this definitely showed by that oh, I can do this as well.
Q: Which teacher at WA would you say had the biggest impact on you?
A: That’s a difficult one, because I feel like a lot of teachers have influenced me in different ways. I think as a person, Dr. McGregor has influenced me the most. It’s always really great to have her as a role model, since she’s someone who’s compassionate, really empathetic, and kind. She wrote my rec letter, and I had an awesome time in her class.
Q: What advice would you give to younger students?
A: I would say try to keep a more positive mentality. I think as students we often try to compare ourselves to other people. I really think we should try to stray away from negative comparison. And, honestly, believe in yourself, because if you do, you put in the work. I would also say never be afraid to ask for help, because there’s always people who are willing to help you. Also, take care of your health, that’s a really important one.
Q: What is one challenge you had to overcome?
A: I think it’s really trying to manage time. That was a pretty big challenge for me because obviously, everyone’s lives are really chaotic, right? So just trying to find a balance between a lot of the different activities, taking care of the house, schoolwork, jobs, and of course having fun–that was probably a big challenge in the beginning.
Q: What is one regret that you have from high school?
A: Probably not going on as many of the class trips and class events. I do wish I could have done more of that. The one class event I did was cotil, but it just so happened that a lot of these events happened on or near something where I had another big event. So I do wish I could have done more of that and made a lot more memories with my classmates.
Q: What is your favorite memory from high school?
A: This is a pretty recent one, so I’m not sure if it’s just recency bias, but I think going out and playing cornhole with the BC Calculus class was pretty fun.
Q: People consider being valedictorian a great achievement, what is one time where you did not succeed?
A: When I first played volleyball. Obviously, I was very new to the sport, I first tried volleyball in freshman year, but I remember I found it kind of funny, because I didn’t make any of my serves over the net. So I realized, wow, I’m new at something again. And that was honestly a great experience, just being new at something. I think that was probably one of the most rewarding situations where perhaps I wasn’t the most successful at it.
Q: What made you realize that Harvard is the perfect fit for you?
A: I’m actually still thinking about that, but I think one of the great strengths of Harvard is its location. For one, my parents are quite old, so I do want to stay in the area and keep my relationship with them. But I also think Harvard has a lot of strengths, especially in the biology and medical areas, and provides a ton of amazing opportunities. So certainly, their connections really stood out to me, and that’s why I was like, wow, this is a really great place to learn and thrive. I also think their student body culture is pretty interesting as well, so I think all of those things combined really stood out to me for why I wanted to choose Harvard.
Q: What would you like people to remember about you?
A: I think if I had to choose anything, what I hope people would remember about me is my work ethic, and, well, I would hope that I’ve been a good person to others. But I think those two are really the main things that I hope people would remember about me.
