The Junior Citizens of the year are selected by the faculty and staff of Laguna Beach High School on the basis of their achievements in leadership, scholarship, athletics and community service.  Both are members of the Class of 2025; both are active in civic life; and, coincidentally, both are Co-Secretaries General of the school’s Model United Nations that hosted the candidates’ forum for the recent city council elections.

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Lili Bazargan is president of two other organizations: The Your Vote Matters Club encourages civic engagement and conducts voter registration drives in partnership with the California Secretary of State. Fluent in Farsi, Lili is president of the Persian Club that introduces students to the culture, history and cuisine of that land. An academic all-star with a GPA of 4.38, she is co-editor of the Brush & Palette school newspaper, a student representative the city’s Heritage Committee as well as volunteering four years running at our county library branch. She also attended California Girls State under the sponsorship of our local American Legion Auxiliary and served as a local Congressional intern. Lili enjoys reading and spending time with her extended family. Lili hopes to attend Georgetown University, Tufts, or Princeton to study international relations with the goal of becoming a diplomat.

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Carter E. McKinzie is another academic all-star and carries an astonishing 4.6 GPA. As a participant in a new program called Authentic Exploratory Research, he spent a year researching the history of former Yugoslavia during its troubled interwar period.  His paper on the subject was published in the History Journal of Stony Brook University. Carter is one of two student representatives to the Laguna Beach Unified School District with the task of meeting students, learning their concerns and then imparting this feedback to the board. As Site Council chair, he is particularly focused in the areas of safety, curriculum and accreditation. Carter has played varsity water polo at the highest CIF level for four years and is this year’s team captain. As part of an initiative in the juvenile justice system, Carter serves as “peer juror” in the Superior Court of Orange County.  Carter has been accepted to Columbia University where he will study political science and economics.