With another year wrapping up, the rankings for the senior class have been finalized, and Brody Aysun has received the merit of becoming the valedictorian in the graduating class. This achievement was accomplished through near-nonstop hard work on Aysun’s part, needing an incredibly high GPA in order to reach the top ten, and an even more impressive one to reach valedictorian.
“In most of my classes, I spend a short amount of time before and after lessons to prime my brain for the material and then review it after,” said Aysun.
While Aysun spent much time working on his grades, he also found himself in many extracurriculars, including track, cross country, programming and robotics. He decided to choose Fengchun Li, the programming club sponsor, to be his sponsor for honor graduation.
“When he got [awarded] valedictorian, it wasn’t surprising, as he has always been smart and never really struggled in school, even in advanced classes,” Aysun’s friend, Kyrollos Bishara, said.
On the robotics team, Aysun is the software team captain, meaning he leads the team when it comes to the coding of the robot, especially during its autonomous stage, in which the machine operates independently of a human controlling it, moving off of coding, sensors and cameras.
Aysun’s second in command is sophomore Nhat Nguyen, who is slotted to become the new software captain next year. Outside of robotics, Nguyen and Aysun are close friends, seeing each other also in the programming club.
“It’s very informative that I get to learn from mistakes he made and the tips he can give,” Nguyen said.
In the programming club, the team works constantly towards competitions like the Lockheed Martin Code Quest. The club also includes Career and Technological Education (CTE) pathways.
This year in the Lockheed Martin competition, Aysun’s team, consisting of him and his two brothers, achieved a rank of 5th out of 95 competitors across Florida, with a final rank of 4th place in the division. This prestigious accomplishment has given Aysun an idea of what he hopes to do in college and beyond.
“In the future, I hope to work at a technology company like Nvidia or Figure AI, or eventually launch my own engineering-related startup. I also plan to continue running competitively in college,” Aysun said.
A final interest of Aysun is his position in both the track and cross country teams. In the most recent season of track, Aysun had multiple personal bests, including a 4:26.42 mile and a 53.67 400 meter. In the past cross country season, he had an astonishing record in the 5k, running 15:38.00 at the regional championships.
Aysun plans to attend MIT with his two brothers.
