The second-highest ranking student in the class of 2025 is Ana Beatriz Pinoh. For four years, Pinoh has strived to acquire a high-ranking spot. Yet to her, the last two years were the only years where her dedication was tested. Specifically, she struggled with juggling the academic demands of upperclassman years. Being in the IB program and balancing extracurriculars, Pinoh feels surreal. The title of Salutatorian caught her off guard. Her past estimate of her ranking was far from what she thought, especially when people work just as hard as her and get no title for it.
Pinoh believes that though her GPA is a little higher than most, she never wanted or expected to be salutatorian, but she’s always valued academic excellence. The title to her is a nice reward for her commitment, priding herself on what she’s accomplished. Pinoh has accomplished a lot for herself during her years at NAHS, yet there were some challenges. Pinoh believes that the IB program is especially demanding. Nevertheless, she pushed through and her goals for her workloads and her drive for excellence have continuously changed as she’s grown. “The workload is gargantuan, but I’ve been ready to continuously accommodate myself,” she said.
For a future goal after college, she aspires to work as an environmental consultant for firms in Atlanta. But before that, she will be eight miles from North at Georgia Tech for Environmental Engineering. Her main goal is to be able to make a difference for the future of Atlanta. “I moved to the city in 2018, and I fell in love with it. So, my major in college will go towards hopefully making a difference to Atlanta, which welcomed me so readily,” she said.
Pinoh plans to achieve academic success through the balancing of work and social life. She points out that one common mistake many students make is overwhelming themselves with a variety of activities and difficult classes. She believes that this will not give you balance and instead increase the stress you already feel. Pinoh believes that in order to achieve such a high ranking in a school with 600 students, you have to make time to study. If one is frequently overwhelmed by other commitments, grades will not be a top priority. “I know a lot of people who are extremely smart, but involved in so many other extracurriculars that they can not keep up with their work, they have no balance,” she said.
Behind the 12 letters of salutatorian is Ana Pinoh, a hard-worker and a determined student. Besides Ana Pinoh’s potential collegiate future and journey to salutatorian there are some internal challenges of keeping confidence during continuous public speaking or meetings of superiors. Atlanta Public School’s ability to commemorate the valedictorian and salutatorian is special, yet brings lots of attention leading to Pinoh’s fear of having to live up the Salutatorian name. However, in the end, Ana Pinoh will continue to thrive as a student and individual.
