James Badas, a senior at Oxford High School, was recently announced as the Oxford High School Class of 2013 Valedictorian at an awards ceremony on May 29.
In mid-December, Badas learned of his admission to Yale University as a member of Yale’s class of 2017.
As a three-sport athlete in soccer, basketball and baseball, he earned a captain position on the varsity basketball team his senior year and just completed his senior year as a key contributor to the Connecticut Class S State Champion baseball team.
Beyond sports, Badas was co-president of the student council, secretary of National Honor Society and held officer positions in the Spanish Honor Society and the Future Business Leaders of America.
He also participated in the school’s band, the World Cultures Club and has tutored for the past two years, primarily in Spanish.
Badas is also a 3‑time medalist and Oxford’s first student to place at the CT COLT Foreign Language Poetry Contest, competing in the Modern Greek Native Speaker division. Badas is of 100 percent Greek descent.
In addition, Badas has done some extensive traveling to further his education. During the summer of his freshman year, he attended Washington, D.C. as part of the National Youth Leadership Conference for ten days.
This past summer, Badas visited Stanford University in California for another ten day conference, though this one was based on law and trial. Inspired by this trip, Badas took advantage of Oxford High’s senior Capstone Project and founded the school’s Mock Trial Club. By December, Oxford was able to compete in its first state competition in the school’s young history at Waterbury Superior Court with Badas leading the way.
Currently planning to double major at Yale in the Ethics, Politics and Economics major as well as English, Badas worked in the fall honing his writing skills.
From late summer through the conclusion of the high school football season, he worked as a sports writer for the Valley Times, publishing eleven articles during his coverage of Oxford High football.
He plans to continue working for the Valley Times, while also working at the Yale Daily News, which holds the distinction of being the country’s oldest college daily newspaper.
Community service has also been an essential part of Badas’ high school career. His tireless volunteering efforts have been dedicated to Oxford’s youth baseball and basketball camps, as well as the annual Odyssey Greek Festival in Orange and feeding the homeless on the New Haven Green as part of the Trinity Episcopal Church’s “Chapel on the Green” program.
