The final year of high school is normally synonymous with
the
”
senioritis
”
bug that leaves students coasting through classes and anxious to
take the next step
The final year of high school is normally synonymous with the “senioritis” bug that leaves students coasting through classes and anxious to take the next step.
While excited about going to college, San Benito High School senior David Bergen has not only avoided the grade-deflating virus, but he also has taken his already impressive academic marks to their highest level yet.
Higher – at a 4.83 grade point average the first semester – than his counselor has seen in his seven years at the school.
“It’s just a testament to his ability as well as his motivation,” said counselor Andy Prisco, who also called Bergen a “pretty modest” guy.
As Bergen and hundreds of other local students wait to hear back about their college applications, his counselor believes Prisco’s extraordinary effort his senior year – when many students do the least amount of work to get by – could be that extra bump to get him into his top schools.
That list for Bergen includes such places as Harvard, Princeton and Seattle outside the state and universities closer to home such as the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Southern California. Prisco noted how many of those top-tier schools keep tabs on their applicants and how they progress their senior years – which might end up helping Bergen get the extra push he needs.
Many students already have heard back if applied to California State University schools, Prisco noted, while those applying for University of California and many private institutions are still waiting to find out where they’ve been accepted.
Aside from Bergen, though, nobody has a 4.83 semester GPA on which to hang their hats.
So if a 4.0 GPA is typically the mark of supreme excellence in high school, how does someone like Bergen get such an unusually high score?
It’s due to a schedule Prisco called the most rigorous of anyone at the school, including five advanced placement courses: English, U.S. government, statistics, biology and French.
Students get extra GPA points for the AP classes, and during his first semester Bergen got straight A’s.
“My only goal was to really keep up my grades and get straight A’s,” said Bergen, who noted he was “very happy” about the semester because he had to bring up two grades from B to A in biology and government.
Bergen, 16, who skipped second grade, also finds time for band, in which he has taken part all four years of high school. He’s played the trumpet since the fourth grade, he said.
School Music Director Jim Zuniga marveled at Bergen’s ability to balance his schedule and called the student a dedicated leader.
“He does it,” Zuniga said. “He finds the time.”
Bergen, who wants to pursue a degree in some sort of science, has had to take a little bit of time out of his busy schedule for college interviews with representatives from the two Ivy League schools.
If he gets into either, he said they’re his top choices and he’ll go to one of them. If he doesn’t, Seattle’s his next best pick.
Either way, he has shown this year that he probably won’t be slacking on effort wherever he ends up.
“A lot of seniors do struggle to stay as competitive as they have been,” Prisco said. “We do have those students who persist and really stay focuses. And David, I would say, is a prime example of that.”
