Tragic news out of Southern California... A 17-year-old honors student died after being swept away by a large wave while volunteering at a beach cleanup in Santa Monica over the weekend.
Valedictorian candidate dies during beach cleanup in Santa Monica
Thuy Tran, a senior at Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School in Boyle Heights, was among a group of classmates swimming in the water on Saturday when she was pulled out by a rip current.
A rescue team searched for Tran for less than an hour before a lifeguard found her responsive underwater. She was pronounced dead at the hospital, according to the Los Angeles County coroner.
Tran was a valedictorian candidate, a member of her school's track and field team, and had recently been accepted to Stanford University for the fall:
Thuy opened the electronic acceptance letter last Friday, university spokeswoman Lisa Lapin wrote in an email. Stanford’s dean of admissions, Richard Shaw, sent a letter of sympathy to her family along with the formal acceptance letter, her original application and the admissions materials she would have gotten this week, Lapin said in the email.
"Even in her short association with us as an applicant and newly admitted student to Stanford’s Class of 2020, we knew she was absolutely the right person to be a part of the incoming class,” his letter read, according to Lapin. "We will miss getting to know her but will remember her character, her great success and her potential."
A number of local high school track teams will wear maroon ribbons or athletic tape on their uniforms for the rest of the track season to honor Tran.
More here: Boyle Heights student drowns during beach cleanup