For Iain Vinson, St. Vincent Pallotti High School’s Class of 2025 valedictorian, what he learned outside the classroom was just as valuable as what he learned inside.
“Most of the lessons I learned during my high school career occurred outside of the classroom with those I met and spent time with at Pallotti,” he said. “I would consider myself a very sheltered child coming into high school, so Pallotti’s hugely diverse population gave me hundreds of conversations with those who come from differing backgrounds than me (and) helped me shape a better understanding of society.”
In addition to the friends he made at the Pallottine-sponsored coed school in Laurel, Vinson said learning to help others was also an important lesson he learned during his high school years.
“Contrary to my thoughts on the matter prior to entering high school, I quite enjoyed my community service experiences,” he explained. His outreach included serving as a coach for his church’s athletic ministry program, which he said helped him “develop self-control and humility,” and working at a food pantry where he “built a newfound appreciation for all of the things I take for granted.”
Vinson was part of Pallotti’s four-year engineering program. He was also a part of the National Honors Society, Foreign Language Honors Society and the English Honors Society, and will be graduating with Academic Excellence.
His extracurricular activities included serving as co-captain of the drumline, playing on the varsity soccer team, and designing and building robots in the school’s robotics program.
The son of Crystal and Jeffrey Vinson of Silver Spring, and a parishioner at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church there, Vinson said he is grateful for his Catholic education.
“Knowing no other type of school, it was a necessity for me to attend a Catholic high school,” he said, because “a Catholic environment is the most intellectually engaging atmosphere.”
“By taking yearly religion classes, I am able to compare my personal beliefs to the traditional Catholic beliefs, which allows me to further form my standing on ethical issues,” he said.
In the fall, Vinson will attend the University of Maryland at College Park where he will have a double major in data science and film.
“Ideally, I would like to pursue my passion for the film industry as a director; however, any career field related to scraping data and searching for patterns would suffice,” he said. “My tangible dream is to one day be nominated and win an Oscar for one of my films, but I would be satisfied with the knowledge that a movie I created inspired any single person to pursue their own dreams.”
Through his studies, he added, he seeks “to make a lasting impact on the world.”
“I hope to tread a new path that will contribute something of genuine value for the betterment of society as a whole,” he said. “In short, I honestly can’t wait to get my life truly started.”
