Meet the Class of 2026 Valedictorian and Salutatorian

Both the Class of 2026 Valedictorian and Salutatorian agreed there was one word to describe their class.

“They're unexpected,” Valedictorian Joshuanaeen “Joshua” Navaneetharaja  said immediately when asked. 

The Salutatorian, Joseph Salheb didn’t hesitate either. 

“They're very unexpected,” he said. “You can never overestimate or underestimate them.”

Perhaps they are an outlier, as when the two learned their respective class rank late last year, it did not really come as a surprise.

“I wasn't too surprised, but I felt happy,” Joseph said.

“I wasn't that surprised, but I was pretty grateful that I found out I was that high of a rank,” said Joshua.

And while the ranking is nice, both agreed they were committed to working hard, but appreciate the acknowledgement and knowing their commitment to academic excellence paid off.

Throughout their time at AHHS, the two have enjoyed participating in the many clubs, primarily those focused on technology, that were offered.

Joshua was a member of the Science Olympiad in seventh and eighth grade. He started the Robotics Club in high school, as a freshman and joined the Coding Club the same year and currently serves as Team Leader for the club’s competitions as well as President of the Robotics Club.

Joseph is also a member of the Coding Club, serving as Vice President, and the Robotics Club too.

The two have more in common as well, as they both have worked on independent research projects.

“I'm currently doing weather research for something I plan to build over the summer,” Joseph explained. “I'm working right now with one of NASA's climate researchers. His name is Alex Ruane. We had a little interview a few weeks ago about the plans for this. I'm going to start building this antenna, which is kind of like a weather gathering device. It's supposed to gather atmospheric data and basically use a simple algorithm to calculate the chance of this happening or that happening weather-wise. I'm going to be taking the statistics of that and hopefully getting a paper done by the end of the summer.”

Meteorology is not just a personal interest. Joseph plans to do a double major in mechanical engineering and meteorology.

Joshua has done a significant research project as well. He has been interning atHostos Community College, conducting in-depth

research on the role of artificial intelligence in shaping teen safety on social media platforms. The community college partnered with Barnard College, and he was able to present at the Barnard Expo.

“We were trying to mitigate the risks on social media because the amount of scam calls and random DM’s you get, people don’t know about the privacy filters,” Joshua said.

“It was fun educating the community on how to get better,” he continued.

With just a few weeks of school left, the two are looking forward to the fall, although they both agree they will miss their small school where everyone knows one another and the sense of community that exists here.

In the fall Joshua will be attending SUNY Binghamton, although he is waitlisted at Columbia University. No matter where he ends up, he plans on majoring in Computer Science.

Joseph has committed to attending Villanova University, but he too is waitlisted at Cornell. 

As to any words of advice they would have to the underclassmen, it amounts to work hard, don’t stress about grades, join as many clubs and activities as you can.

“Have fun over these four years,” said Joseph.