No Debate: Calhoun Valedictorian Leads a Full Life

Being valedictorian of your class means you're smart.  Pretty straightforward, right?

Leave it to Jun Luke Foster to debate what seems to be an obvious point.

"It's an honor but I don't think it's a full-proof measure of real intelligence," Foster says.

His classmates and teachers would probably disagree with him, maybe even debate him on it.  And they'd probably lose.

Foster is the valedictorian of the Calhoun High Class of 2010.  He's also the captain of the debate team, having placed 8th in the state competition this year.

"I've been teaching 12 years, he's the only one like him I've ever seen," says Calhoun teacher/debate team coach Justin Uliano.  "He's something very special...not your typical valedictorian."

Indeed, Jun Luke has led a full four years at Calhoun.  In ninth grade, he was in the Model U.N.  He worked for Habitat For Humanity in 10th grade.  He's also tutored fellow students in the writing center, and mentored incoming freshmen.

Not enough?  Foster is also a pianist, and even considered attending the prestigious Juilliard School next year.  And then there's the debating, something he's been doing since he was a freshman.

"It's been really one of the most rewarding experience I've had in high school," he says.

Foster says it's the 'Lincoln/Douglas' style of debating that drew him in, where both sides of an issue must be debated by all parties, instantly doubling one's opinion, and research.

"It forces you to examine issues that you might have previously had some kind of opinion about, but you have to consider the other side's opinion, and you have to be able to represent that," Foster says.

Jun Luke has shined in his team's competitions, and his coach says his prep work and ability to think on his feet is unparalleled.

"He brings a real eloquence to his presentation, he's not argumentative, he's interested, curious and very, very sincere," Uliano says.  "That comes across to his judges and his opponents."

Foster says one of the main reasons he remained on the debate team throughout his high school career was because of the mentorship of Uliano.

"During my four years on the team, I have learned tremendously from his clarity of thought and remarkable ability to dissect an argument and distill it to its fundamentals," Foster says of Uliano.

So how good is Jun Luke when it comes to debating?  I decided to put him to the test:

Global warming?

"Science has clearly established that global warming is real, it's a pressing problem that needs to be addressed," he says without hesitation.

Explain, I add.

He quickly goes into a scientific soliloquy, about how carbon dioxide levels correlate with rising temperatures.

Next up - Is the death penalty an effective deterrent of crime?

"The death penalty does not effectively reduce crime rates," he says, citing studies.

I try and throw him a curveball: Are CGI and 3-D ruining movies as we know them?

"No, if it's used well...you can have a good movie without 3-D, you can have a bad movie without 3-D, and you can have good and bad movies with 3-D," he states.

I'm just the latest person unable to rattle Jun Luke.  Next year, he takes his combined experiences to the next level, as he's decided to attend Yale, for its academic and music programs. 

Of course, his biggest challenge is still to come - his valedictorian speech to the graduating class.  Bet on Jun Luke meeting this challenge like he's done all the others.

"It's been crazy here sometimes, but it's been a good four years," he says.

And that's not up for debate.  But you'll have to ask Jun Luke to be sure.