Tosten Pearson and Brianna Gaughan (Photos – PHS)
Pasadena High School has two valedictorians in 2022.
By Minh Tran
Tosten Pearson
Since his freshman year, Tosten Pearson has been a writer for the Pasadena High School newspaper, the Pasadena Chronicle, and has led the publication this last academic year as Editor-in-Chief. He has also served as co-founder and Vice-President of his school’s Science Olympiad Club/Team for all four years.
Outside of the classroom. Tosten has volunteered at the Huntington Library, for over two and half years, accruing over 170 hours of service. During his summers, he has interned through the California Institute of Technology’s Summer Research Connection program and has taken multiple classes at Pasadena City College.
Tosten was named a National Merit Scholarship winner and was awarded the UC Berkeley Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholarship. He is a recipient of the Pasadena High School Class of 1967 Scholarship and the Pasadena Educational Foundation’s 2022 Pasadena High School Wark Scholarship. He is a California Scholarship Federation seal-bearer with the highest honor and a member of the National Honor Society. He is an AP Scholar with Distinction.
This coming fall, Tosten will be enrolled at Brown University with a concentration in Chemistry. However, he is also interested in exploring various disciplines of engineering through Brown’s Open Curriculum and plans to continue learning Mandarin Chinese.
Brianna Gaughan
Brianna Gaughan was committed to the astronomy club at Pasadena High School, serving as the club’s Vice President her junior year and President her senior year. Brianna also worked to promote STEM education at school through the construction of an observatory on campus. Since freshman year, Brianna volunteered at the Huntington Library, accumulating over 200 hours of community service.
Brianna is a member of the National Honors Society, a California Scholarship Federation seal-bearer with the highest honors, and a College Board AP Scholar with distinction.
Brianna is an experienced violinist and has been playing since she was 3 years old. She was a violinist for the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestra, participating in the
string orchestra, symphony, and Philharmonic. She also began figure skating when she was 15 years old.
Over the summer, Brianna has participated as a research intern at Caltech as a part of the Summer Research Connection program. As a dedicated STEM student, she has
also spent her summers taking math classes at Pasadena City College, eventually taking linear algebra and multivariable calculus her senior year.
This fall, Brianna will be attending UCLA where she hopes to work in a research lab and compete for the university’s figure skating team.
Minh Tran is is a school counselor at Pasadena High School.
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