Hahnville High salutatorian achieved perfect ACT score

David Broussard
David Broussard

David Broussard said he’s not sure how to describe how he felt when he heard he had earned the honor of salutatorian of Hahnville’s Class of 2018, noting while it didn’t come as a shock, the feeling of pride that comes with it was quite real.

“It was never something I was aiming at or considered a goal to drive for,” he said. “I guess I’d say it didn’t surprise me, but I also wasn’t expecting it. It’s a big accomplishment though and I’m honored to be in this position.

“Now my only concern is writing that speech.”

Though he didn’t seek it, it isn’t Broussard’s first taste of the spotlight either. Early in his senior year, he turned heads when he earned a score of 36 on the ACT, the highest possible score one can receive on the test. It’s among the rarest of achievements: it was estimated in a recent ACT Profile Report that less than 1,600 students secured a perfect score out of the 1.9 million who took the test during the surveyed year.

That was Broussard’s first and only time taking the test, though he scored a 34 on a practice test he took as a sophomore.

He attributes much of his academic success to a strong memory, something that has helped him retain valuable big-picture concepts that he’s learned in the classroom.

“I don’t have a photographic memory, but I’ve always retained information pretty easily,” Broussard said. “I don’t really find myself taking many notes in the classroom. But that’s more in terms of overall concepts … things that are super specific, like formulas or dates that I know I’ll have to repeat later, I have to pay extra attention to those. But I have a good memory as far as overall concepts go.”

That said, he wouldn’t say it all came easy to him.

“Particularly the subjects I’m less comfortable in, like social studies and English, (both) AP classes obviously require a lot of preparation,” said Broussard, who is also a member of the National Honor Society and Beta Club and has submitted several high placing items for Young Authors. [pullquote]“Once I’m out in the real world, I don’t want to just be another cog in a machine.” – David Broussard[/pullquote]

One thing that helped as a senior was having time budgeted at the Satellite Center.

“Even though I still was taking a bunch of AP classes as a senior, my junior year was probably tougher because I didn’t have the Satellite Center to counteract that. It kind of mitigated some of the stress since I was able to do something I really enjoy,” he said.

He will be attending the University of Louisiana-Lafayette where he plans to study computer science with a focus on game development.

Broussard developed a taste for programming early, when around his sixth grade year he started researching ways to program through a Nintendo DS game system he had laying around.

“It’s a computer like any other one, you can make it run programs,” Broussard said. “That’s when I got into it, developing stuff for my DS. It was kind of a rocky start, I wasn’t exposed to the best practices at the beginning.

David Broussard working on his senior project.

“But once I could say, ‘hey, look at this game I made, on a real console’ it kind of legitimized it in my mind and drove me to keep going.”

He said he’s drawn to game design as a concentration for his skill set because he wants to create things others will see, benefit from and enjoy.

“Once I’m out in the real world, I don’t want to just be another cog in a machine, writing code for something no one will ever see,” Broussard said. “And that extends to video games, but also the web and application development.”

He said he chose ULL for a few reasons. One of those is the strong reputation of its computer science curriculum. Another is it affords him the opportunity to stay close to home, but be far enough away to find his independence.

“I’m not too far away from home, but I won’t be tempted to go every time something minor happens,” Broussard said. “It will force me to be more independent and to grow and mature.”

 

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