“The vision behind the DHS Robotics Team 5150Z (Erik Savoyski).” Ranked second in his senior class of 757 people, with a weighted GPA of 4.9516, Christopher Borges, an aspiring engineer, has undoubtedly made his mark on Danbury High School and the many students and faculty he connected with along the way. 

As salutatorian of the DHS’ Class of 2025, Borges’ strong commitment to academics is a given. He enrolled in Honors Robotics as a freshman, an “audacious move,” according to DHS Robotics advisor and teacher Erik Savoyski. Since then, Borges established himself as an integral member of the DHS Robotics club, instrumental to his team’s success which, as described by Savoyski, has been “nothing short of monumental.” A driver for his Robotics team, Borges’ hardwork and resilience, both at practice and during competitions, has paved the way for Robotics regional wins and coveted recognitions, tournament championships, state championships, and most recently, triumph over 9534 teams in the 2025 Robotics’ Worlds Championship, placing his team second in the world by a narrow two points to first. 

Not only did his passion as a driver prove a vital contribution to his team’s unprecedented success, but it also caught the attention of Borges’ girlfriend of two years, Josephine Valente. “He works incredibly hard and I don’t think he receives enough credit.” Speaking on behalf of his intelligence, friendliness, and tenacity, Valente highlights Borges’ character, as a person who’s more than “just a nerd who indulged in his studies.” 

Outside of school, Borges balances the countless late nights spent aside his robotics team engineering, with playing video games, watching movies, spending time with his dad, and teaching his friends about Italian brain rot. Not only is he described by his close friend and robotics teammate, Eric Guo, as “the most mature, level-headed, and reasonably confident person” he knows, but, with pranks dating back to middle school of nonexistent upcoming tests and projects under his belt, Guo emphasizes how Borges is “also very funny, smart, and competitive.” 

The competitiveness in Guo and Borges’ friendship speaks to a more unique degree than the typical dynamic; with Guo the class valedictorian, their GPAs are separated by a mere 0.0145. Despite this, their ranking has, according to Guo, never been “a factor that caused any disagreements. In fact, talking about robots has caused more disagreements.” 

While the weekends are typically a time for students to catch up on their school work, Borges spends his weekends on the exact same activity he spends his time on nearly every other day afterschool: robotics. In one instance, Savoyski “witnessed the Z team work on an autonomous scheme (when the robot moves by itself)” for seven hours straight into a Friday night. Ultimately, as admitted by Borges, “there was no balance. Robotics came before academics.” 

So how did he not only survive high school, but do so at the top of his class? Cramming. According to Borges, cramming is, in fact, the study habit that enabled him to flourish academically, at least in the short term. He explained that while cramming is the go-to technique for individual tests, “you won’t remember anything after.” Nonetheless, with a schedule as busy as Borges, cramming the night before, and even “the morning of” has to suffice. 

Ironically, despite taking 14 AP classes over the span of three years, Borges cites his regret of not signing up for AP Computer Science Principles as a freshman. As a word of advice, he encourages underclassmen to “challenge [themself] and explore,” using the multitude of classes DHS has to offer “as an opportunity to figure out what you want to do.” While AP Calc was the most difficult class for Borges, it was AP Chemistry that took the spot as his favorite, also contributing to his aspirations of becoming a chemical engineer. Not only was the class a “good mix of both” math and memorization, refreshingly different from the past STEM classes Borges had taken, but an out-of-class AP Chem experience also served as “probably the most unique” one he had at DHS. It was a chemistry field trip to Westconn and a missed city bus that resulted in Borges not only driving his classmates back to school, but his teacher as well. 

In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Borges will spend the next four years at Carnegie Mellon University, studying a career in chemical engineering. Once again taking a liking to “a balance” in material, Borges stated that while a degree such as “mechanical engineering may have suited [him] better with [his] background in robotics,” he took a liking to chemistry, pursuing chemical engineering specifically because of its balance between science and engineering. 

Carrying on the lesson that he learned from his most considerable high school influence and freshman robotics teammate, Sharva Karthikeyan, Borges aims to continue to push to be a better version of himself all throughout college, encouraging others to also find the people in your life that “you could use as motivation to do better.” Whether that be through a career in chemical engineering, “or engineering in general,” Borges’ ultimate goal is to find his place in the world where he is “capable of contributing to some sort of positive change,” respected in whatever field he ends up in. 

“I will likely forget every other accomplishment I had in high school except for this one.” All in all, while Borges takes home the title as the DHS Class of 2025 Salutatorian, it’s the process of becoming a Vex World Finalist that was the most transformative. The path beginning “from basically nothing,” to worldwide recognition, was embarked upon three short years ago with a group of people that Borges “couldn’t be more proud of.” Despite the “many points” where any member of his robotics team could have given up, everybody stuck through, teaching Borges the valuable lesson that, in the end, “hard work does pay off.” As stated by Savoyski, the Z Team “elevated our school and our state to distinction and honor, and did it with good, old fashioned hard work,” an accomplishment that, coupled with the diligence, perseverance, and practice with stress management Borges cultivated throughout high school, will certainly pave the way for many more.