According to her mother, Bella Migliore was born with an inner drive that eventually led her to become Beacon High School’s 2024 valedictorian.
“She was just made that way,” said Megan Migliore.
When Bella entered school, she practiced tying her shoes over and over because she wanted to join the class “Tie Your Own Shoes Club.” The same goes for the “Count to 100 Club.”
Before she could write, Bella dictated short stories about Puppy and Frog, best friends who had fictional adventures. Her parents dutifully recorded the stories in composition books that they still treasure.
More recently, that drive — “It’s how I am,” says Bella — carried her to a GPA of 104.95 (weighted with advanced classes). She edged out salutatorian Wallace Wei by half a point, said Corey Dwyer, the high school principal.
Bella competed in track and field for the Bulldogs, and her drive also helped her set the girls’ school record for the 800-meter race in 2:23.
She also played lacrosse and soccer but took up track in part to follow her speedy older brother, Sal, who runs for Springfield College in Massachusetts. It turned out that Bella was also fast, especially at middle distances such as the 400 and 800.
The previous 800 record had been set in 2017 by Jummie Akinwunmi, who was the 2018 valedictorian, attended Yale and is in medical school at Columbia University.
Bella set the record in spring 2023 at a state tournament qualifying meet at Monroe-Woodbury High School in Central Valley. Coming into the final 200 meters, she knew she was close and heard her father cheering. “The reward was so much greater than the pain I felt,” she recalled.
Her calculus teacher, Theresa Lucarini, known to students as “Ms. Luc,” also noted Bella’s drive. “Sometimes I would use her exams to compare to my answer key to make sure I didn’t make any mistakes,” said Lucarini. She added that her handwriting is so perfect that “there could be a Bella Migliore font.”
Lucarini said she suspected calculus wasn’t Bella’s favorite class, a fact confirmed by Bella. “But she pretended like it was,” she said.
Asked for a key to her academic success, Bella cited “taking handwritten notes in class. I feel like it helps you retain information. There are so many people who just listen.”
Bella will attend Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, in the fall, where she will run track and cross-country. She aspires to be a doctor and help athletes, a profession she began to research after seeing a sports medicine doctor two years ago for a stress fracture in her left shin. “I want to find cures,” she said.
