Northeastern University remains the most popular destination for valedictorians from Boston Public Schools, with nine 2025 graduates at the top of their class becoming Huskies this fall.
“Northeastern is a wonderful option for our students,” Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper said at an event honoring BPS valedictorians on Tuesday. “There is more and more synergy between Northeastern and BPS, and our students feel a sense of belonging and confidence at Northeastern that enables them to go and be the change agents they can be.”
Boston Public Schools held its 27th annual Valedictorians Luncheon at Fenway Park on Tuesday, celebrating the public school system’s 33 top high school scholars.
“You made a hard choice time after time after time to invest in yourselves, to lift up the work that you knew was possible and to end up at the top of your class,” said Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
Wu also noted that she and Skipper were also high school valedictorians.
“Please know that there are people who are in decision-making roles in the city who also know what it’s like to have doors opened up that you never could have imagined — through education, through hard work, through community support,” Wu continued. “So we’re extra cheering you on today.”
With nine of the valedictorians attending Northeastern, the university has more than twice as many BPS valedictorians this year as any other college or university.
It continues a trend.
Over the past three years, Northeastern has welcomed nearly 40 Boston Public Schools valedictorians, far outnumbering peer institutions.
John Tobin, vice president of city and community engagement, called the annual Valedictorians Luncheon one of the best days of the year in Boston.
“We get to hear directly from these exceptional students, many of them immigrants to our city and first-generation college students, about their dedication while often dealing with extreme adversity,” Tobin said. “We meet their parents, caregivers and teachers. We also learn about their dreams of what is ahead. For many of the valedictorians, that dream includes furthering themselves academically, socially and globally at Northeastern. All of us at Northeastern, no matter our roles, stand at the ready to make those dreams a reality.”
Most of the Boston valedictorians are awarded the Northeastern Boston Valedictorian Scholarship, which provides full tuition, room, board and fees covering eight academic semesters.
That was a major factor for Kevin Martinez Aguilar, valedictorian of Community Academy of Sciences and Health.
“I was very excited the night I opened the website and saw I had been admitted, but I then got worried because I didn’t know how I was going to pay for it,” said Aguilar, who came to the United States from Honduras four years ago and taught himself English. “Then I got word of the valedictorian scholarship and I called all my friends again. It was a very happy moment.”
Aguilar said he is most looking forward to the co-op experiences and the global perspective offered by Northeastern.
“Northeastern has a lot of students from different countries and different cultures, and it will be good to explore that,” Aguilar said.
Keila Da Cruz Sousa Rosario, the valedictorian of Dearborn STEM Academy, also cited Northeastern’s diversity as a draw, saying she wanted to “learn about more cultures” while attending the university.
Rosario also said becoming a Husky was her first choice for college, as she has family who work at the university and she likes the campus.
“You know when you just get to a place, and you know it will be a nice place for you and you feel comfortable?” Rosario asked rhetorically. “It was like that.”