Congrats, grads, class of ’09

In honor of Finals Week – which Professor Bolsavik survived without losing life, limb, or sanity, thank you very much – here’s a heartfelt congratulations to all graduates of the Class of ’09.

And, let’s take a look at local valedictorians.

“Local” means near the Bolsavik’s house in Little Saigon (he’s just parochial that way). The Bolsavik’s house is located in the Garden Grove Unified School District, which is the principal district serving the Little Saigon area.

There are 8 high schools in the Garden Grove USD, and from those schools 5 valedictorians and 6 salutatorians have recognizable Vietnamese family names.

Congratulations to all grads, and a special shout-out to the valedictorians and salutatorians for your achievement.

The list of GGUSD valedictorians and salutatorians follows the jump.

(If you’re not on the list - and not to take away anything from the top students or anything - don’t sweat it. You know the vast majority of successful people were not valedictorians or salutatorians of their high schools, right?)

The valedictorians in the Garden Grove Unified SD are shown in this press release, and they are:

The top seniors named as valedictorians are: Bolsa Grande High School – Thong Thai; Garden Grove High School – Katherine Hogan; Hare Continuation High School – Anh Truong; La Quinta High School – Lucia Rafanelli; Los Amigos High School – David Do; Pacifica High School – Traci Biedermann; Rancho Alamitos High School – Kimberly Vu; and Santiago High School – Lily Au and Richard Wong.

This year’s salutatorians are: Bolsa Grande High School – Christina Ta; Garden Grove High School – Van Anh Tran; La Quinta High School – Frank Minh Nguyen; Los Amigos High School – Lucinda Tang; Pacifica High School – Taylor Compton; Rancho Alamitos High School – Dolly Vo; and Santiago High School – Long Le and Phuong Huynh.