To come in near the top of his class, Pemberton Township High School salutatorian Eric Chung said he didn’t take an easy route.
“I just took the most challenging classes possible,” he said.
Those classes – many of them weighted advanced placement courses – earned him a 5.39 GPA.
Among his favorites, he cites his computer science class.
“It’s one of the smaller computer science classes in the school. It’s got a lot less exposure,” he said. “That’s one of my possible fields, computer science.”
But Chung is keeping his options open.
“I also like political science. I’m not sure which of those two I’ll go into,” he said.
He’ll be exploring both of those, and other subjects, at Rutgers University’s New Brunswick campus.
Chung attributes his success largely to one thing – “the teachers.”
“Most of my teachers were really outside the box,” he said. “One of my history teachers always drew from personal experiences, which helped a lot.”
Chung has been involved in the computer club, the math team, the National Honor Society, the debate team, and the Future Business Leaders of America.
“Debate really stood out for me,” Chung said. “In debate, you learn that it isn’t just about screaming at each other, trying to get your point across.”
He said he’s looking forward to college education.
“There’s just so many more things you get exposure to,” he said.