SACRAMENTO-

Valedictorian, co-president of the mathletes and vice president of the key club –  a good list of accomplishments for any graduate, but the path for new graduate Lloyd Chen at Laguna High school wasn’t exactly typical.

You’d have to add  ‘survivor of circumstance’ to the very top of his long, long list of accomplishments.

Poverty, paternity and pressure could have easily kept him from his goals.

There’s not much pomp to the circumstance of sitting in your son’s high school parking lot for his entire day of classes because you didn’t have the gas money to pick him up and drop him off every day.

But that’s just the kind of sacrifice Susie Yun made for a year to help her son Lloyd Chen to  get started in the rigorous international baccalaureate program.

It’s a start that’s delivered him to a moment of graduating as valedictorian – with a 4.79 G.P.A.

And if that wasn’t stunning enough – Chen’s hit what you might call a “nine-fecta.”

Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, MIT, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis and UC San Diego have all offered him free- rides.

He’s headed to Harvard.

“It was more than a dream come true,” he said.

Chen’s mom, Susie, is elated for her son.

“We’re just very proud of him. We just want this night to be his night.  It means a lot to him.  It’s very important to him ,” said sister Sally Chen.

“Whatever opportunities are available to you just make sure you take advantage of them,” Chen said.

At graduation, Chen and his classmates are all wearing the same robes, but through four long years of high school – first at Mira Loma in Sacramento and then Laguna in Elk Grove – Chen wore hand-me -downs.

Suffering with clinical depression, his mother struggled to provide for him, a sister at home and a sister at college – all on public assistance.

“She’s always been there for me and been supportive,” the graduate said about his mom.

Chen’s father left the family close to his birth.

Given all that, Chen’s modest about his accomplishments, but he’s not modest about his message.

“I realize how important it is to have those big over-arching dreams no matter how silly they may sound. Whether it is…wanting to change the world, save lives or to become an astronaut, never lose sight of your dreams,” said Chen.

Obviously a young man with lots of dedication and direction that have set him apart, but he’s not so unlike his peers in at least one respect – he hasn’t declared a major.

Right now engineering, economics and psychology are all vying for his attention.