Jared Vargas, a member of the class of 2023, is a successful student and the captain of three sports: the boys’ basketball team, cross country and boys varsity volleyball. He’s also been grade president for three years: senior, junior and freshman years.

Vargas’ experience at Pace has had some ups and downs due to Covid interrupting his first two years. “It was cut short, so I didn’t see a lot of people,” said Vargas. “But now heading into my senior year, especially last year as a junior, it was good seeing everybody and knowing what the school’s about.”

Out of all of his classes, he enjoyed global history the most. He likes learning about history, not only about the U.S but around the world and how “our society has been treating, not just me but other people in the world throughout this century and other centuries,” Vargas said.

Vargas’ prime year was junior year. He was the junior grade president and his sports career went pretty well. Vargas’ junior year really impacted his social life.

“Junior year was my best year in high school because I just came back from Covid,” Vargas said. There was a “big change in my personality and I feel like that’s when I had the best grades. Sophomore year I kinda flunked. This year I have the motivation to do SATs and college admissions.”

Mr. Widlund,12th grade English and AP literature teacher, as well as the head of SGO, said, “Jared is a good student. When Jared gets undistracted is when he really does a lot of meaningful work and he’s a really great collaborator in class.”

Mr. Widlund also said, “We really want to see Jared contribute more into the student government and this school because he is recognized and people really see him as that figure.”

Vargas is a multi-talented athlete. He had the most three-point shots on the varsity basketball team. In the boys’ cross country team of 2022 he finished in 10th place. On the boys’ varsity volleyball team during spring of 2022, he finished the season with 28 kills and 11 kills during playoffs.

As it’s Jared Vargas’ last year here, his advice to the underclassmen is to “have fun cause this is your only highschool experience and time management is key to school and extracurricular activities.”