Vellandi is the exiting Editor in Chief of the Titan Tribune, requested for this article to be made and picked the writer. However, the entire writing and editing process was done without his input.
Carlo Vellandi was named Scholar of Scholars at the Senior Awards ceremony, giving him a red robe and speech at graduation.
The Scholar of Scholars is the “student with the highest overall weighted grade point average based on course work in the following core curricular subjects: English, Math, Social Science, World Language, and Advanced Placement Courses,” according to the Tesoro Senior Awards program.
Vellandi did not directly campaign for the award and views it as a “fun honor,” in his words, believing that the “red robe is cool” while being excited for his speech at graduation. The award was a side effect of his aspirations for the “next chapter” in his life, Harvard, and if he could, he would sacrifice the award to take a journalism class, which is not currently offered at Tesoro, but he hopes that it soon will be.
Vellandi views high school with optimism. He believes that it will offer him something later and that his optimism towards school, compared to the common belief that school is not worth it, is the reason he was able to succeed in it. In terms of losing fun for academics, he reports none of the sort as he uses his class time and tutorials efficiently to limit the amount of homework he has, making time for hobbies.
In terms of extracurriculars, Vellandi has a full resume yet advises people not to do extracurriculars for the sole purpose of impressing college because they can likely tell if a student is primarily doing them to fill their resume. He has been the outgoing Editor in Chief of the Titan Tribune, which he founded with his friends Katherine Le and Alex Mckay in addition to doing outside journalism. Sports-wise, he was the captain of cross country and track and field at Tesoro High School. Volunteer-wise, he reffed at the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO), which he enjoyed.
Vellandi will be attending Harvard University in the fall. He hopes to view it as an opportunity to meet more people as a Harvard class is four times larger than a Tesoro class and contains people from around the world. He also views Harvard as an opportunity to explore his interests more as it offers more “quirky” classes which will help him decide whether or not he is interested in certain fields. As of now, he plans to eventually end up in law school but he welcomes the prospect of seeing where college takes him and perhaps exploring another path.
With all that said and done, Vellandi’s top priority is not academics or extracurriculars; it is kindness. His dad used to tell him stories about people he knew in high school, and the one thing that captivated his attention in the story was when the person discussed was described as being nice. He went into high school with this mindset and tries to be nice to everyone, from his close friends to strangers.
When Vellandi looks back at high school in the coming years or decades, he wants to remember the people. High school to him was about meeting people, not conquering it with grades, which he certainly did as the Tesoro High School class of 2024 Scholar of Scholars.
Comments