Sunday, January 19, 2025
Long Beach High School has announced the top two students in this year’s senior class: Daniel Brenner is the valedictorian, and LiLin Garfinkel is the salutatorian.
Brenner, 17, was born in China, where his father was working for Lockheed Martin as a radar engineer. He grew up admiring his dad’s work, which sparked his interest in engineering. His family moved back to the United States when he was 12, landing in Island Park, where, in a sign of things to come, he was the valedictorian of Island Park Middle School.
“That was really early to be ranking people,” Brenner joked.
When he got to Long Beach High, he started taking International Baccalaureate classes, intending to work toward an IB Diploma. It was no surprise, given the influence of his father’s work, that he concentrated in the sciences.
“I want to major in engineering, so I’m more focused on STEM classes,” Brenner explained, referring to science, technology, engineering and math. “I really like calculus. I really like physics. I think they’re very interesting and they’re math-heavy, so I find that cool.”
Outside the classroom, Brenner is a member of the National Honor Society, and vice president of the Tri-M Music Honor Society — despite the fact that he didn’t learn to play a musical instrument until 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic hit, and he found himself bored. He was playing catch with his mom one day, he recalled, and just said, “I want to learn an instrument.”
He decided on the alto saxophone, because it “sounds cool.” He taught himself, watching YouTube videos to learn the fingerings. He joined the high school band later than most of the other student musicians, but he has more than held his own. Now Brenner plays in the school pep band, the jazz band and the wind ensemble.
He also taught himself Japanese. “I self-taught Japanese because I used to watch anime a lot, especially in China,” he said. “I watched anime and I was like, why not learn Japanese? I have an 1,800-day Duolingo streak right now,” he added, referring to his use of the online language platform. “I started in seventh grade.”
Brenner takes a great deal of pride in being a mechanical design lead in and treasurer of the school’s robotics club. He used to watch Formula One racing when he was growing up, interested as much in the engineering and assembly of the cars as he was in the racing. He is also an athlete, the captain of the high school’s badminton and bowling teams.
Brenner said he never had the goal of being the class valedictorian. “I just worked my best,” he said. “I just tried my hardest.”
Garfinkel, 16, has also followed a unique path in her Long Beach educational career. She was in sixth grade when the pandemic initially spread, and then had an especially strange school year — as did everyone — the year after, as a seventh-grader. Since the learning process wasn’t normal, she studied a lot by herself, focusing on the core subjects of math, science, social studies and English. She ended up so far ahead that she took algebra and geometry in middle school and actually skipped eighth grade, going right to the high school.
“I was both excited and nervous,” Garfinkel said of the two-grade jump. “I remember the first day of school, everyone was confused. I didn’t really like explaining it — I don’t like the whole conversation. But the funny thing is, I didn’t tell anyone in my old grade that I was skipping, so I just disappeared.”
She said she feels as if she missed out on some of the normal eighth-grade experiences, but that set her up for early success. She was well prepared for higher-level classes, and is also aiming for an IB Diploma. Garfinkel is now the vice president of treasury of the National Honor Society, and captain of the math team.
Beyond her academic success, she is also a co-founder and vice president of the school’s Asian American Pacific Islander Culture Club, and treasurer of the Class Club. She plays viola, and is a member of the Chamber Orchestra and the high school’s Principal Quartet. She also volunteers at the Chinese Cultural Association of Long Island, where she helps teach Mandarin and traditional Chinese culture to young students.
Garfinkel began playing tennis in middle school, and is now captain of the varsity team. But despite her success in and out of the classroom, she never thought much about being a top-ranking student.
“I wasn’t thinking of it as a goal,” she said. “It wasn’t really something that I would put over anything else, but I tried my hardest with my grades.”
