ECHS Valedictorian Stanford bound as she plans on a major in environmental engineering. Paola Vega Jaquez was the valedictorian for the 2018 graduating class at Early College High School. With their famous low acceptance rate dropping even further in 2018 to 4.3%, Stanford University offered admission to only 2,040 students out of the 47,450 who applied. Additionally, Paola is the recipient of a generous scholarship. Paola credits an exercise in her 5th-grade class for inspiring her to pursue being valedictorian.