Feature Photo By: Eric Huynh – Senior Kenny Luong sits on the tennis field and laughs. Luong is being honored for his accomplishments and is ranked #10 in the Class of 2019.
Kenny Luong comes in #10 with a weighted 4.689 GPA, taking 9 AP classes over the course of his high school career and participating in a variety of extracurricular activities: College Track, Chess Club, StellarXplorers, UNICEF, National Honor Society, and tennis.
In many of his friends’ and teachers’ eyes, Luong is a hard-working, caring, and kind individual who tries to be the best person he can be. He’s weird, yet embraces his weirdness–ranging from his facial expressions to the topics he talks about–to bring smiles to those around and to show that he does not care about what others may think of him.
“In such a harsh world, people like Kenny keep things cheerful,” said John Quach, a close friend of Luong. “He’s someone you can’t hate because he is overall kind and happy. He has a childlike happiness to him that loves to explore and wonder.”
One thing you might not know about Luong is his energy level–he has a “social battery” and an “alone battery.” There’s a certain point where he will either want to be alone after spending time with others and vice versa. The thing is, however, he believes that he is not that interesting of a guy.
“I live a boring life and I don’t try to plan out anything in the future. I just live by the moment and I am totally content with a simplistic lifestyle,” said Luong.
Luong is passionate about engineering. At first, he was positive that he wanted to do aerospace engineering, however, he believes all the different types of engineering (civil, mechanical, electrical, aerospace) will lead him towards the same job. He wants to do some type of engineering that will leave an impact on the community. As of right now, he plans to attend CU Denver for a mechanical/civil engineering degree.
“That’s pretty much why I am alive right? It’s to help other people. If I’m doing stuff selfishly and doing things for the sake of cash, it’s kind of an unfulfilling life,” said Luong.
As he approaches the end of his senior year, Luong leaves a few words of wisdom to the rest of the students: to experience life. He wants upcoming students to just take the shot and do stuff that they think they won’t like or for the heck of it.
“The hardest step is the first step. Put yourself in a position where there’s a possibility where you can actually fail. Put yourself in a position where you are challenged and you push out your boundaries,” said Luong.
