Henry Dong balances his with music

Henry Dong, Goshen High School’s 2025 salutatorian, is taking his musical and academic prowess to Northwestern University in the fall, where he hopes to be welcomed by a new environment and the beach.

“Now you’re stepping into the world with professional professors and teachers, so I’m excited to see what that’s about,” Dong, 18, said. “And also, my school is on the beach, so maybe we can go to the beach for the first month.”

Dong, who is from Goshen, will study civil engineering at Northwestern, a subject he said interests him because he loves building things, and one day, even hopes to build his own house. He is also notably a gifted trombonist, with music acting as a constant throughout Dong’s life. He has participated in several school bands like jazz band and the symphonic band, in addition to ensembles outside of school, like the Maybrook Wind Ensemble, a community band.

This past year, he had the opportunity to earn a seat at the Juilliard MAP, a music advancement program at Julliard, which according to their website, “creates pathways and increases access to classical music education for intermediate to advanced young musicians,” and has some ensembles, like an orchestra.

Dong went to All-State two years in a row, last year performing with the orchestra and this year, the jazz band. Once in college, he said he hopes to possibly join the marching band.

He also volunteers in his community, participating in the Interact Club, a community-service club, and the Goshen High School Leo Club, which stands for “Leadership, Experience, Opportunity.” He also played tennis and was part of Science Olympiad, a science-based competition club.

It takes a village to accomplish many impressive feats, and Dong mention some of his mentors throughout high school, including his music teacher, Kim Longo, and guidance counselor, Laura Dubatowka. He said Longo helped support his musical advancement and Dubatowka helped show him “the path to get to where I am now.” Both his sister and cousin helped him figure out tasks he was unsure how to do, like applying to college, Dong added.

Of the exciting moments throughout the last four years, he said there were a lot of them, especially funny ones, like the time one of his friends ordered a salad without romaine lettuce in it. He corrected himself to the waiter once his friends began laughing at him.

“I’d say there were some highs in high school,” Dong said.

He described the dynamic with valedictorian Kiran Foster by saying that sometimes in biology, he would make Foster mad. Admitting that he does not have the best attention span, he said he would not always pay great attention during class while Foster tried to remain focused.

“It’s definitely a solid friendship, very informal, and I don’t think we take each other very seriously a lot of the time,” Dong said.

But he would be taking a different approach to his graduation speech than Foster.

“I want to just go up there, have some fun, make some people laugh and sit back down,” Dong said.

Distinguishing his own graduating class from some others, he said he feels their class is more friendly with one another and more open about their grades.

“There were previous classes that had a lot of tension between some of the top of the class,” Dong said. “Everyone in our top six is friendly toward each other. We’ve been there since kindergarten with each other, so we are just friends.”

Dong mentioned one piece of brief but effective advice he would have given to his freshman year self to make the most of his high school journey.

“Just do it,” he said.