The school announced Executive Managing Editor Zoe Goor ’25 and Jacob Massey ’25 as the valedictorian and salutatorian for the 2024-2025 academic year. The valedictorian is electedfrom a group of students with the highest grade point average (GPA) by a panel of faculty members. The salutatorian is chosen by a class vote .
President Rick Commons said he is glad Goor and Massey were chosen because of his familiarity with them.
“It’s always nice when I have a personal relationship with the speakers,” Commons said. “[Goor] is a reader, and she came into my office for something and saw my bookshelf. We got to talking about books. I’ve had a lot of fun chatting with her over the years. [Massey], of course, is a personality you cannot miss.”
Goor said she approached academics at the school with a passion for learning.
“I never chose classes based on anything but whether or not I was actually interested in the course,” Goor said. “I think that it’s best to be motivated by your genuine interests. The goal should be learning, growing your mind and thinking about interesting things that make you excited to go to school.”
Massey said he appreciates the support of the senior class and the time they have spent together.
“If I could thank my class for one thing, it would be everything,” Massey said. “This is probably the best class in Harvard-Westlake history. We’ve overcome so much and grown as people more than I could have imagined.”
Commons said although a requirement of both the valedictorian and salutatorian is the ability to deliver an engaging speech to an audience, it is a more important quality for the salutatorian.
“The three explicit criteria [for selecting a valedictorian] are academic scholarship, character and the presumed ability to deliver an interesting address to a large gathering at graduation,” Commons said. “[Goor] had characteristics that led the faculty to elect her. The salutatorian process is simpler. It’s strictly [up] to the senior class. There are any number of [students] that could give a great speech at graduation, but it tends to be somebody who’s got a personality that has captured people’s imagination and sense of humor. The pressure is on [Massey] as the senior class has some expectation of hilarity.”
Goor said though she started at the school later than the majority of students, the community of the school welcomed her.
“I was a new sophomore, and that was kind of a difficult transition,” Goor said. “I came to a new school where I didn’t really know anyone, and I had to learn everything all over again. I overcame it as I really threw myself into my extracurriculars, like The Chronicle, and I felt really supported by all of my teachers and the administrators. Any initial difficulty that I had in transitioning to the school was temporary, and I’ve had an amazing experience at Harvard-Westlake.”
Massey said he is looking forward to giving a memorable address.
“Being elected as salutatorian has changed both my goals and the way I view myself,” Massey said. “One of my main goals right now is to write a really good speech. I view myself as a person who must write a really good speech or suffer horrible consequences. The salutatorian speech is about bears. No more, no less.”ews
