Perhaps ironically, the four valedictorians and one salutatorian at Mission Bay High School with its International Baccalaureate program all come from families with deep global roots – especially French – outside of Pacific Beach and San Diego.

Salutatorian Sophie Cacdac’s family is originally from the Philippines. She was born in Switzerland and speaks French. The four valedictorians all hail from elsewhere too. Aliyah Al-Khafaji’s family is from the San Francisco Bay area. Gaspard Robo was born in France. Jean-Baptiste Vidon and his family are from the south of France, and Mica Talarico-Smith is of Argentine and Wales extraction.

All five top-performing MBHS students praised their high school’s International Baccalaureate program, a rigorous, two-year high school program doubling as a highly respected college prep curriculum. The IB program encourages students to see themselves as members of a global society. It was originally a standard curriculum for students moving from one country to another. Today, there are over a million IB students in nearly 150 countries.

These top-five performing students are gearing up for their annual rite of passage, high school graduation, which takes place this year at MBHS, 2475 Grand Ave., on Wednesday, June 14 starting at 5 p.m. Graduating students talked about their future, the state of the world and what they’ll take with them from their high school experience in PB.

Beach & Bay: Tell us about yourself and what you’ll remember most about MBHS. What are you doing this summer? What are your plans?

Sophie Cacdac: I went to San Diego French-American School in La Jolla. Something I will remember here is the people and the friends I’ve made. It’s a pretty tight community. In IB, you pretty much know everyone in your classes well and always see them because we’re all taking the same pathway. This summer I’m going to Spain with my soccer team on a 10-day trip. I’m going to UCLA and majoring in biology because I want to pursue a pre-med pathway.

Aliyah Al-Khafaji: My family moved here from the Bay area a couple of years ago. I enjoyed it (MBHS). I met a lot of new people and had a lot more freedom. The teachers, they cared about my education, what I was doing. That was inspiring and positive. This summer I hope to hang out with friends before I go to UC Berkeley early for a summer program. My major is environmental economics and policy. I’d like to get into product design, and sustainability, and possibly do something internationally.

Gaspard Robo: I was born in France and we moved here 10 years ago so most of my life has been spent in the U.S. I still feel like I’m part of a French community because there are a lot of French immigrants here. I’ll remember the broad IB curriculum that allowed me to explore a bunch of different classes, allowing me to hone in on an interest to pursue in college. I’m going to Portugal this summer on a backpacking trip. I’m going to UCLA and will be studying data science.

Jean-Baptiste Vidon: I’ll remember the culture we have at MBHS because there are a bunch of different cultures coming to this high school compared to others. It makes it the best. You just meet so many different people and make different friends. It’s a great experience. I’m going to Canada for a week this summer and then going to France to see my extended family. I want to work at Apple as an industrial product designer, designing and shipping products with Apple designs. 

Mica Talarico-Smith: I was born in San Diego and went to PB Elementary and PB Middle schools so I’ve grown up here. In the summer, I work in a PB bakery. I’m also going to Barcelona and Amsterdam, and to see my extended family in Wales. I’m majoring in biochemistry at Tufts University. I want to study genetic engineering. I did an internship in a lab last year and enjoyed it. I’d like to go into genetics and study how we can mutate genes to help people, or possibly become an astrobiologist, studying the possibility of life on other planets.

Beach & Bay: What is the state of the world and what do you think it needs most right now and in the future?

Sophie Cacdac: I’m hopeful for the future. Technology is always advancing. We were able to overcome COVID and come up with all these vaccines. The biggest problem is the social inequalities people face. We need society to work together and get rid of these inequalities so people have the same opportunities.

Aliyah Al-Khafaji: The world is ever-changing. It will be up to us, which way we decide to go. If we all work together it can be positive. We need equality for all so everyone can be on an equal footing and have more opportunities. That will help solve a lot of issues because more people will be given a chance to say their opinion and have a voice.

Gaspard Robo: The world today is polarized with wealth and equality and political opinions. But the rise of new AI innovations could have a lot of potential to solve a lot of these problems. But it has to be put to the right use. If I could magically eliminate something, it would be the fact that humans are pretty self-centered. It’s the root cause of a lot of issues. If we could just spread things (wealth) more evenly, that would solve a lot of problems.

Jean-Baptiste Vidon: It isn’t perfect and we need to fix it. But as long as we’re all open-minded and listening to everybody else, it should be able to fix itself. Equality for everyone is the most important thing, really getting a fresh start with everyone being at the same point.

Mica Talarico-Smith: Polarization in our world isn’t helping us much. We need to figure out a way where we could all come together. A lot of us would agree that climate change is negatively affecting our planet. But I feel like our generation has recognized that we need to take care of our planet. We need to eliminate prejudice, racism, and sexism, erasing judgments people have before they get to know them (others). Erasing that would allow us to achieve the equality that we all want.