Montville Township High School -

Ryan Sun is the Valedictorian of the Montville Township High School [MTHS] Class of 2024. A leader in his class, Sun also served as the President of the Class of 2024 for the entire four years of his high school career.

“Being the Valedictorian of the MTHS Class of 2024 fills me with a sense of pride and accomplishment,” Sun said when asked about his reaction to the news that he had achieved the top academic recognition in his class. “Achieving this honor had always been a dream of mine.”

Sun credits his achievement to hard work and time management. He also notes that trying new things taught him new skills and provided him with additional confidence.

“The most valuable lesson I learned,” Sun explained, “was to keep an open mind and explore new opportunities outside of my comfort zone. Sometimes valuable treasures can be found where you least expected them.”

One of the “valuable treasures” Sun explored at MTHS was the National History Day competition.

“I never imagined myself doing historical research, but when [teacher Christopher Trzepinska] encouraged me to participate in the National History Day competition in my freshman year, I decided to give it a shot. Making websites, to present historical arguments, unlocked a passion that I continued exploring for the rest of high school.”

Ultimately, Sun served as the Co-President of the MTHS History Club during both his junior and senior years. He was also a two-time NJ State Champion and National qualifier for the National History Day competition.

“My favorite memory of going to school in the Montville Township Public Schools [MTPS] district was spending a few days in Washington D.C. with [teacher Stefanie San Filippo] and Mr. Trzepinska during my junior year for the National History Day competition,” Sun recalled. “I got to present my historical website to judges, tour the National monuments, and make new friends from across the country.”

Another “valuable treasure” that Sun cited, when asked about lessons learned through trying new things, was his AP English Literature and Composition class.

“English has never been a favorite subject of mine, but [teacher Dr. Kurt Kilanowski] helped me open my mind to new ways to appreciate literature.”

Sun took the AP Lit class during his senior year.

“Whether we were reading Beowulf or poems by Coleridge or Wordsworth, Dr. K helped me see the beauty in the meaning behind these works,” the Valedictorian shared. “I was especially surprised and fascinated by the relevance of the messages behind these works in our lives today.”

In his junior year, Sun founded a new MTHS club: RISE.

Noting that the new club has a membership of over 100 students, Sun explained that “RISE [Realize Improvements and Share Experiences] is a community where students teach one another, emphasizing life improvements in academics, sports, mental health, and wellness.”

An extraordinarily busy student, Sun is always seeking ways to perfect time management. Through this interest he learned that he loves leading meetings on such topics as Atomic Habits and effective studying strategies. Atomic Habits, based on a strategy by James Clear, is described as a “simple set of rules for creating good habits and breaking bad ones.”

“We also had many meetings led by other club members,” Sun added. Noting that the club had even hosted National Keynote Speaker, and Leadership Development Trainer, Bryant D. Collier.

Sun is a highly motivated and organized individual. During his time as President of the Class of 2024 he regularly led monthly class meetings, promoted school spirit, and during his senior year, served as a high school Student Representative to the Montville Township Board of Education [BOE].

“The class officers and I coordinated to organize many fundraisers,” Sun recalled when describing his duties as President of the Class of 2024. “The most successful fundraiser was last year’s Tricky Tray, where we worked with the advisors as a team to connect with over 300 businesses for the event, which raised over $30,000.”

In addition to trying new things, serving as Class President and History Club Co-President, and founding and facilitating a new club, Sun received a National 2nd Place and NJ 1st Place FBLA Team of 3 for E-Business, is a National Merit Finalist, an AP Scholar with Distinction, and holds a NJ Seal of Biliteracy in Chinese and Spanish/Castilian. Sun also achieved a level 5 in the National Chinese Proficiency Test, and is a Morris County Scholar Athlete who played on the MTHS Tennis Team.

“I will miss most all the memories I made with the tennis team over the past four years,” reminisced Sun. “Whether I was having fun at practice, leaving school early for Counties, playing in the States tournament, or getting emotional on senior night, I never had a dull moment with the tennis team and my amazing coaches, Coach [Kenneth] Sachs and Coach [Richard] Mosera.”

In the fall, Sun will attend Dartmouth College and intends to major in Economics.

Before MTHS, Sun attended Hilldale Elementary School and Robert R. Lazar Middle School. All three schools that Sun has attended are in the Montville Township Public Schools district in Montville Township, New Jersey. During the 2023-2024 academic year nearly 3,450 students attended the pre-k to grade 12 district.

“No matter what your interests are, you will always find close relationships in the tight community at MTHS,” Sun said of his four years at MTHS.  “The incredible teachers in every department and my amazing group of peers are what made MTHS a special place in my heart.”

The MTHS Class of 2024 graduated on June 20, 2024. Two Hundred Seventy-Seven seniors received diplomas at the 53^rd Annual MTHS Graduation Ceremony. The entire 53^rd Annual MTHS Graduation Ceremony can be viewed on the Montville Township Public Schools YouTube Channel or by visiting www.montville.net/mthsgraduation.

As Valedictorian and President of the MTHS Class of 2024, Sun spoke during the graduation ceremony. His speech focused on a poem he read while taking the AP English Literature and Composition exam this spring: FROM BLOSSOMS, by Li-Young Lee.

“So why did I read you all this poem where the speaker eats peaches from a roadside stand in the summer?” Sun asked the audience. “Because I think we can all relate to the speaker’s appreciation for peaches—not just the peaches themselves, but also the happy memories they represent. Each of us has our own peaches, our own precious moments in life that bring us the most joy.”

“What surprised me the most [about high school] was that the biggest peaches and the happiest memories were no academic achievements or hard-won sports trophies,” Sun continued. “Instead, they were the relationships I made in high school. Enjoy every moment with your friends since your most memorable experiences often come from your friendships.” 

The full speech presented by Valedictorian Ryan Sun can be viewed on the Montville Township Public Schools YouTube Channel. A transcript of the speech is published below:

“Good evening, family, friends, faculty, staff, administrators, and all my fellow classmates. Congratulations, class of 2024! We did it!

Reflecting on these past four years, I’m amazed to see how much we’ve grown and changed. We have overcome many challenges that have made us into better people. We learned the art of speed walking to overcome the great challenge of waiting ten minutes in the sandwich line or the parking lot. We also learned how to drive and become more independent people. I don’t know if I can trust our grade with that independence, though, cause I have seen some crazy things in the parking lot. Shout out mthsbadparking. Most importantly, we found our unique talents and built upon them throughout high school. For some of us, this talent was in sports or the arts. Others thrived in science, math, history, or English. For me, I discovered my potential to become a professional ballet dancer.

Anyway, we really have come a long way since freshman year. I still clearly remember freshman year me, who would waste hours scrolling through my phone on the couch. When I wasn’t on my phone, I often felt like a robot, mindlessly doing work without real purpose. Sometimes, life felt like a never-ending list of chores, with a new task replacing each one I completed. I was sure that I would burn out long before high school ended.

But something changed along the way. A new perspective transformed my approach to high school and life. This perspective shift, and the central message I want to share with you tonight, is perfectly captured by an unexpected source: a poem from this year’s AP Lit exam.

Yup, you heard me right. Of all the things I could have talked to you about, I am going to bore you to sleep with a poem. But I promise it’ll be worth listening to.

For the people who took the AP Lit exam, this will be a bitter reunion with a poem you probably tried hard to forget as soon as you finished the exam. I know Dr. K is probably the only excited person in the crowd right now, so I’ll try not to mess up the analysis for you. 

From Blossoms

BY LI-YOUNG LEE

From blossoms comes

this brown paper bag of peaches

we bought from the boy

at the bend in the road where we turned toward   

signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,

from sweet fellowship in the bins,

comes nectar at the roadside, succulent

peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,

comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,

to carry within us an orchard, to eat

not only the skin, but the shade,

not only the sugar, but the days, to hold

the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into   

the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live

as if death were nowhere

in the background; from joy

to joy to joy, from wing to wing,

from blossom to blossom to

impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

So why did I read you all this poem where the speaker eats peaches from a roadside stand in the summer? Because I think we can all relate to the speaker’s appreciation for peaches—not just the peaches themselves, but also the happy memories they represent. Each of us has our own peaches, our own precious moments in life that bring us the most joy.

My favorite part of the poem is the bittersweet ending. “From blossom to blossom to impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.” Why are the blossoms impossible? Because blossoms don’t last forever. Blossoms eventually turn into fruit, which either rots or is eaten, and summer eventually comes to an end. In this way, our lives are very much like blossoms. Every stage of life, from graduating high school, going to college, and getting a job to starting a family and preparing for retirement, brings us closer to the end. We may even find ourselves asking, what’s the point in it all? 

Many things in this world, like blossoms, peaches, and summer, are not permanent. That’s what makes them so enjoyable. If blossoms lasted forever, we wouldn’t find them so beautiful. Similarly, it is life’s impermanence that makes life beautiful, that makes every moment precious and worth cherishing. 

So, to return to freshman year me, what made me find my purpose? Well, I realized that no matter how much time we spend scrolling through our phones on the couch, time keeps moving. Memorable experiences, like peaches, do not just appear in our hands. We have to go looking for them. Like the speaker, we have to make the effort to stop by the side of the road to buy peaches. It is this ambition to make every moment in life meaningful that helped me find purpose in my life. School was not about forcing myself to get through the year and end with high grades. It was about looking for opportunities to involve myself in and out of the classroom to find and hone in on my passions. Each assignment, essay, test, and project was not another mind-numbing thing to add to my to-do list. Instead, they were stepping stones, markers by the road that guided me toward the juiciest peaches. By savoring life’s experiences, I learned to flip my daunting list of chores into an exciting, neverending bucket list.

Many of life’s tastiest peaches come from the orchards we grow and nurture ourselves. So what is the secret to growing the largest peaches? In other words, what is the secret to success? 

Is everyone ready? This is where I would take out a notebook and pencil. (talk really fast) So the secret is to wake up at 5 am every morning. Take two glasses of lukewarm water, then take a 5-minute cold shower, straight into thirty minutes of meditation. Then journal for ten minutes, exercise for two hours, and eat a full, healthy breakfast with no caffeine or energy drinks. Did you guys write all that down?

In all seriousness, I think that tennis player Carlos Alcaraz perfectly explained the secret to success after winning this year’s French Open: “You have to find the joy in suffering. That’s the key.” This quote doesn’t just mean loving the grind; it means chasing after the beauty in a blossom only you can see.

Sometimes, finding meaning in life means enjoying the experiences right in front of us. For me, this meant breathing in the fresh, cold air during my morning runs. It meant savoring every good point in tennis, regardless of whether I won or lost. It meant relishing every aha moment in Mr. Carey’s multivariable class. It meant absorbing every Mr. Riotto lecture, especially when it was on hump day.

What surprised me the most was that the biggest peaches and the happiest memories were no academic achievements or hard-won sports trophies. Instead, they were the relationships I made in high school. Enjoy every moment with your friends since your most memorable experiences often come from your friendships. 

Staying on the topic of relationships, I want to take this time to extend a few thank yous to Ms. San Filippo, Mr. Farro, Mr. Mosera, Dr. Glanville, Mrs. Reinknecht, Mrs. Przetak, Ms. Choi, Ms. Marotta, and Gene Molina, my tennis coach since I was eight. To each of you, thank you so much for providing guidance, support, and inspiration, and for making a lasting impact on my life.

To the class of 2024, thank you for letting me serve as your class president for the past four years. It has truly been an honor to fulfill the duties of this role, and I thank you for trusting me in our journey through high school.

Finally, I would like to thank my parents, who have impacted me the most. Mom and Dad, you mean the world to me. Whenever I feel like I've given my all, you both help me find the strength to go even further. While many things in this world may be temporary, my love for you will last forever.

Mustangs, never forget the orchard we grew here. As we venture off into the world, keep adding new, unforgettable memories to the orchards we carry within us. When you feel like giving up, remember to “find joy in the suffering”. And let your happiest memories, let your peach orchard, be your guiding light through difficult times. 

Thank you all so much, and I wish everyone the best of luck!”