Jack Austen ’23 rose up in shock as he heard his name called at the Cum Laude Ceremony in May of 2023. He had just been selected to be the valedictorian of the Class of 2023. As he went up onto the Rugby stage to shake President Rick Commons’ hand, he felt a rush of excitement. Austen said he never thought he would be being named valedictorian, but he was thrilled when it happened.

“I had never worked towards being valedictorian in particular,” Austen said. “Of course broadly I was trying to take difficult, interesting classes and do well, but valedictorian was never on my radar. I was very surprised. I had an inkling that I might be one of the people up for consideration, but I thought beforehand that it was very unlikely that I would be selected.”

Leo Craig ’24, who was also selected as valedictorian, said his experience was positive and filled with support from his peers.

“It was such an amazing moment,” Craig said. “Being called up on stage there and shaking Mr. Commons’ hand was such an honor. Everyone else was really supportive and congratulating me. There was not any bad emotions at all with people being jealous, or anything like that. The whole process of being at the ceremony was pretty easy, and it was good.”

In many schools across the nation, valedictorian is awarded to the student with the highest grade point average (GPA), and salutatorian is awarded to the student who has the second highest GPA, according to transizion.com, a knowledge platform of college admissions and career development experts. Upper School Dean Sharon Cuseo said the selection process for valedictorian at the school is not based solely on GPA.

“Traditionally the valedictorian has the highest GPA in the class, but because at Harvard-Westlake that top student is maybe a 1000th of a decimal point above the next student, it’s a difference without a distinction,” Cuseo said. “We’ll generally look at the top five students, and look for a natural break so that we aren’t splitting between two students who are a 1000th of a point difference. Once those students have been determined, we’ll announce the people in contention for valedictorian, and the faculty vote based on intellectual engagement, curiosity and speaking ability.”

Austen said his experience with the selection process for valedictorian was surprisingly non competitive, even among his friends who were also in contention.

“It did not feel competitive,” Austen said. “Even with my friends who I knew had wanted to win the award themselves, the conversations and interactions were all very positive. It didn’t really bother anyone because these are people who have very well-defined senses of self-worth. The valedictorian award, while it might seem like a big deal at the time, is not actually that important.”

The salutatorian is not selected not by GPA, but a student vote based on who the class wants to hear speak. During the same year that Austen was elected valedictorian, the vote for the class of 2023’s Salutatorian was tied, and former Features Editor Harry Tarses ’23 and Carter Staggs ’23 were both selected to speak. Tarses said the process was unexpected but special.

“Mr. Commons called us into his office beforehand,” Tarses said. “Carter and I had done a lot of the same things. We had very similar careers at Harvard-Westlake and I thought he definitely could get it, or I could maybe get it because people had been talking about it. Commons gave this long speech and then he told us that we had received the same number of votes, and that instead of doing a runoff, they were gonna have us both be it, if that was okay with us. We both looked at each other, and we agreed. There hadn’t been a co-salutatorian duo since 2011, so it was great to it bring back.”

The job of the valedictorian and salutatorian is speak at graduation. At the school, valedictorian speaks first, followed by the salutatorian. Victor Suh ’25 said having student speakers at commencement helps the ceremony feel more meaningful.

“It’s always great when a send off for a student class comes from one or two of the students,” Suh said. “Commencement makes sense that way, and overall feels right. It’s symbolic, especially when they’re people that both the faculty and the student body recognize as representative of their class and its character.”

Austen said the opportunity to speak at graduation allowed him to reflect on the lessons he had learned during his four years at the school.

“My speech was about competitiveness and the good and bad forms of it, specifically focusing on how it could change one’s experience for the better, or be really hurtful at times,” Austen said. “My writing process began with getting the idea which came from my experiences with the hyper-competitive environment that we have at Harvard-Westlake and what I thought had been the most sort of defining mistakes I had made. I wanted to write a speech that I thought if I had heard and listened to earlier on in my Harvard-Westlake experience, I would have taken a lot away from.”

Tarses said him and Staggs used humor in their speech to highlight their differences while still delivering a meaningful message.

“We just wanted to make a joke about how we were mad that we had to do it together, but that [it] actually was a huge privilege,” Tarses said. “What it allowed us to do through the lens of a joke or us being mad at each other, was to give two interesting ideas about what the end might mean and whether it was hopeful and exciting, or sad and nostalgic. We turned that comedic disagreement into this whole thing about how the beauty of Harvard-Westlake is the way we can disagree about things and feed things from different perspectives.”

Craig said the one downside of being selected was knowing how many of his classmates were equally qualified.

“The thing about the Cum Laude ceremony is that so many of those people are all at the top of the class, and they’re all really accomplished people,” Craig said. “It’s definitely hard to be chosen as one out of all those people, especially because I was in classes with so many of those people, and they’re all super deserving too.”

Cuseo said the school has considered rethinking the titles of valedictorian and salutatorian in order to better reflect Harvard-Westlake’s holistic selection process and to avoid the confusion tied to traditional GPA-based definitions.

“We’ve thought about it because some people feel really strongly that valedictorian means the highest GPA in the class, even if it isn’t a huge distinction,” Cuseo said. “Salutatorian often means second highest GPA in the class. I understand why some people would think that because my high school made the student with the second highest GPA salutatorian. Instead, we’ve thought about calling them faculty speaker and student speaker. The conversation is definitely ongoing.”

Austen said he believes the true value of school lies more in growth than in competition.

“I would say competing for the valedictorian title specifically is just kind of silly,” Austen said. “It’s so much less important than the intellectual development that you will achieve through the process of being at Harvard-Westlake. There are certainly contexts in which competition can be a very good motivator for personal growth and personal success, [but] competing for a specific award is generally not that meaningful and important.”