Spencer Redula is a senior student here at Ripon High who excels in everything he does. He is rightfully getting recognition for his accomplishments, hard work, and dedication throughout his high school career being announced as the Class of 2024’s Salutatorian.
Throughout Redula’s education, he admits he consistently tried to get ahead and this was a trait that has been instilled in him since his adolescence. During his freshman year, since the school was closed down due to COVID-19 he used his extra time to create Albert questions with Mr. Mayfield and got them published. Sophomore year he started to get into clubs so that in his junior year he could be the president. He is the president of multiple clubs here at RHS including Scrubs Club, Work2BeWell, and co-president of Environmental Club and started doing fundraisers and things like that along with the Livermore Lab opportunity he was involved in for research as a way to try and get ahead. He constantly considered and sought out the opportunities he had, thinking ahead of what more he could do.
After being asked how he felt after the announcement of him being salutatorian Redula responded: “I am very proud of myself because a lot of the time it wasn’t very easy and there was a lot of self-discovery throughout the process. I realized that my success in my education was a way to feed my ego and later changed my mindset actually wanting to do the things that I did. Even though I had more work it became easier for me because I was doing the things that I actually enjoyed instead of doing things I had to do so I’m more proud of that shift rather than my grades, involvement, AP scores, or whatever it may be.”
Redula’s hard work did, in fact, pay off when he got his college acceptance. He applied to four UCs, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, and UC Los Angeles, and got accepted by all four. Although it was a hard choice, Redula chose UCLA because his goal is to graduate in three years and he will get the most credits there. It is also a really highly ranked school in its research and professors in their fields of research which made it stand out to him. At UCLA he will be studying biology under the broad evolutionary and ecological sciences, which he chose so it’s under more of general biology.
Redula states his hard work can also be accredited to his parents and everything they have done to inspire him.
“My parents inspired me because they both came from a really poor childhood with my father being an immigrant, they truly raised the ladder taking nothing and building it into something, which allowed me to take the opportunities and financial stability I was given to make the most of it,” he says.
While very talented and hard-working Redula is also very grateful for everything he has been offered throughout his life. He is filled with gratitude for the opportunities he has been given and never takes them for granted.
“I am very grateful for my opportunities, a lot of students who are very talented don’t get the proper resources or have the time to do things, so I’m very grateful that throughout my whole high school career I was able to do the things I wanted not being held back by for example family issues or a lack of resources,” he expresses.
For the younger high school students Redula encourages them to take all the opportunities they can and to ask questions.
“You don’t know if you don’t ask, other people want to help others, so take your opportunities and ask, in order to improve yourself,” he states.
Ripon High staff and students are very proud of Redula’s hard work and dedication over the years and are proud to call him the Class of 2024’s salutatorian. With that being said make sure to congratulate him in the halls on his truly remarkable achievements this year and wish him luck in his future endeavors!
