Salutatorian isn’t something you stumble upon or randomly win. It has to be in your mind since freshman year and something you strive for every day. It takes years of late nights staying up writing essays, scrambling to finish assignments in the hours before it’s due and a natural drive to succeed. One of this year’s class of 2022 salutatorians at Milford High Schools is Zack Bonza-Brodie, ending off his four years at Milford with an overall GPA of 4.41.

Bronze-Brodie has taken a total of 11 AP classes and five honors classes. Bonza-Brodie has always strived to take as many AP classes as he possibly could to challenge himself and boost his GPA as much as possible.

Along with being the class of 2022 Salutatorian, Bonza-Brodie also received the highest academic honors, HVS’s highest Academic recognition, the President’s Award for academic excellence, an HVS Academic medal, was a member of National Honors Society, an AP Scholar with distinction, recipient of a Merit Scholarship from U of M, The Carls Scholarship and The Carlson Anchor Foundation Scholarship Program award.

Not only is Bonza-Brodie a scholarly student, but he is also involved in many extracurricular activities. Bonza-Brodie was a key member of the Milford HOT Robotics team, contributing as a Machinist. The Milford robotics team is ranked globally, competing at the world competition in Houston, Texas this year.

Along with being heavily involved in the Milford robotics team, in his senior year, he was asked to be an Oak Valley Middle School robotics mentor. Bonza-Brodie volunteered to help teach middle schoolers how to build their robot for their middle school robotics season. “It was fun getting to see kids learn and make progress on their own without me helping them too much, and teaching a whole new generation of robotics,” Bonza-Brodie said.

Bonza-Brodie was a strong member of the Milford Mavericks football team his freshman and sophomore year, starting on Varsity during the Homecoming game his sophomore year. Bonza-Brodie was also a four year varsity shotput and discus thrower for Milford Track and Field. He has also been an active member of the National Honors Society (NHS) during his junior and senior years.

Bonza-Brodie will further his academic success at the University of Michigan this fall and will major in engineering. Bonza-Brodie has been a massive U of M fan since he was a kid and has always dreamed of attending. Although at times there may have been some procrastination, Bonza-Brodie’s determination and dedication in these last four years have proven he is incredibly deserving of the title Salutatorian.