Dedicated. Hard working. Tenacious. Resilient. These words are often used when describing a person after they complete a difficult task or specific challenge. To become salutatorian, and have the second highest GPA in the graduating class, four years of dedication, hard work, tenacity, and resilience are needed. Salutatorian Peter Eckmann demonstrated all these qualities and more on his way to filling his transcript with eleven AP classes over his four years at UC High on his way to a 4.86 grade point average.

   Salutatorian and other academic awards may not be as flashy as a sports MVP award, but Eckmann maintains that they are just as competitive and should be appreciated equally. “I think for athletic awards, it is easier to see what the achievement is – it’s much more fun to watch a basketball game than it is to watch someone take a test.  But, just like athletic awards, academic awards are the culmination of hard work and dedication,” he stated.

   Eckmann’s main focus heading into high school was to learn as much as possible and to challenge himself. “[Coming into high school] I didn’t even know what a salutatorian was, so for me it was mostly about taking the classes that would challenge and benefit me,” he said. “I’ve had an amazing experience in all my classes at UC High and have been fortunate to have some great teachers along the way. I particularly liked taking AP science classes as they really helped shape what I want to do in college.” 

   Eckmann will be continuing his education at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Muir College next fall, majoring in Computer Science. “The field of computer science is really interesting to me because there is lots of problem solving of complex issues from many different areas, and I enjoy the creative aspects of creating new tools to solve new problems,” he said.

   Despite his challenge course load, Eckmann still found time to differentiate his time into other avenues he loves. Eckmann participated in Science Olympiad, academic league, and robotics  at UC High as well as currently working at a bioinformatics lab at UCSD. Senior Max Scott said of Eckmann, “He is extremely funny with a whimsical sense of humor. He is a great teammate on the academic league team, someone who always knows the answer, and can be counted on when the team needs a win. He is extremely talented in the realm of coding, as he built the code for the robotics team that allowed us progress to the regional competition for the past four years. On top of it, Peter is a great friend and someone I’m glad I’ve gotten to know better over the past few years. I know he will go on to do great things in the future.” 

   Throughout his high school career, Eckmann has clearly learned many things, which is evident by his transcript, but nothing more important than the wisdom he can share with his fellow students. “I would say valedictorian or salutatorian shouldn’t be the goal, since it’s much more important to develop your particular interests and grow your experiences than it is to focus on something like GPA,” he said. 

   Dedication and commitment are clearly strong character traits that Eckmann possesses, and that he has shown time and time again during his high school career at UC High. The future may be full of unknowns, but if Eckmann continues on his current trajectory, Microsoft or Apple just might come calling.