Wiregrass Ranch Valedictorian Excels Outside Classroom As Well
WRH valedictorian A.J. Persaud, with his parents Andy and Sylvia, the day he won the honors.
the best version of himself than by satisfying
anyone else’s expectations.
“As parents, we wanted Aidan to be
a happy child, have friends and get good
grades,” Sylvia says. “We did not put
pressure on him to get the best grades
or to over-achieve. We believe that was a
product of self-motivation derived from
his excellent teachers throughout his
academic career, along with the friends/
classmates he has that constantly challenged
him to be better.”
A.J. loaded up his class schedule
beginning sophomore year by only taking
Advanced Placement (AP) and dual enrollment
(at Pasco Hernando State College)
classes. He maximized his GPA with a
challenging course load, and scored a perfect
score of 5 in each of his 11 AP classes.
He still has three more to take, whenever
and however that will be. A.J. says the
College Board made big changes to the
tests to deal with online learning brought
on by the Covid-19 crisis, including
eliminating multiple choice questions and
requiring all answers be written out.
“The teachers still aren’t sure how
that’s going to work,” A.J. says. “This is
Aidan “A.J.” Persaud never really
gave much thought to his class rank, and
neither did his buddy Kelvin Ng.
However, when the two Wiregrass
Ranch High (WRH) students and longtime
friends discovered after their freshman
year they were tied for No. 1 in their
graduating class, they decided to make a
friendly competition out of it.
“The race is on,” A.J. says he jokingly
told Kelvin.
A.J. would cross the finish line first.
A National Merit Scholar and boasting a
4.68 weighted grade-point-average, A.J.
has been named the WRH Class of 2020
valedictorian.
Although school is out and it’s unclear
if it will return in time for the usual
annual graduation ceremony, A.J. was
honored at a school breakfast for finishing
at the top of his class, along with the
other Top-20 students at WRH, before
spring break.
A.J. gives some of the credit to Kelvin,
who will graduate fourth in their class.
“I think the whole (competition)
added to our education,” A.J. says. “It
wasn’t all about the grades, though. We
were helping each other, working with
each other to get us to the top.”
Kelvin played the trumpet in the
WRH band, and band doesn’t count as
much towards one’s GPA, but he did
get a State band championship out of
it last fall, the first-ever for the Bulls’
vaunted program.
The two friends have known each
other since they attended third grade
together at Wesley Chapel Elementary.
They were usually the two smartest kids in
the class.
Kelvin says challenging A.J. was less
of a competition, and more of a contest
for both of them to conquer the hardest
courses they could. Both were determined
students, and sometimes, that can be the
difference between good and great.
“I think we both have the same
mentality that at some point, you have to
take it into your own hands, sit down and
do the work,” Kelvin says. “When people
don’t feel like it, they go do something
else, like their phone or play video games.
What separates people (like us) apart is we
just sit down and don’t give up. You have
a research paper due tomorrow, but you
figure you’ll just go to bed instead? Stay
up and do it.”
A.J.’s parents — Andy and Sylvia —
couldn’t be more thrilled. They say that
A.J. was a natural, driven more by being
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