Little Rock native named Princeton valedictorian

The Class of 2024 valedictorian at Princeton University is from Little Rock and Moscow.

That’s Moscow, Russia. Not Moscow, Arkansas. As valedictorian, Genrietta Churbanova will deliver a speech at the university’s commencement on May 28 in Princeton, N.J.

She’s an anthropology major who is minoring in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, and Chinese language and culture.

“Genrietta Churbanova is a treasure beyond compare, embodying the absolute best of a Princeton education and citizenship …” said João Biehl,chairman of Princeton’s anthropology department. “Our faculty unanimously agree that Genrietta is the most exceptional student that has come through the Department of Anthropology in the last two decades, and we believe she is destined to a groundbreaking academic and publicly engaged career at the interface of the social sciences and the humanities.”

According to Princeton, “The Valedictory and the Latin Salutatory are awarded by vote of the faculty to two of the highest-ranking members of the graduating class. The special qualifications of a student as valedictorian or salutatorian are taken into account as well as scholastic standing.”

Churbanova’s mother is from North Little Rock, and her father is from a village in Russia.

“She worked in Russia for a while, where she met my dad,” Churbanova said of her mother.

Genrietta was born in Little Rock while her mother was in law school there.

After her mother finished law school, while Churbanova was still an infant, they moved to Moscow. Then when she was 6 years old, the family moved back to Arkansas.

Churbanova attended Pulaski Academy. She graduated in 2019 and was selected as one of two salutatorians.

Her mother, Genoveva Gilbert, is a law clerk for the federal court in Little Rock.

Genrietta’s father, Alexander Churbanov, is retired.

Her parents now live in Maumelle.

Churbanova grew up speaking primarily Russian.

But her mother wanted her to have roots more firmly planted in Arkansas soil.

“I think my mom just wanted me to have an upbringing there,” said Churbanova. “She thought it was a good place to live.”

She agrees.

“I’m a huge fan of Arkansas,” said Churbanova. “I really like it.”

From August 2010 to July 2011, Churbanoa’s mother served as a law clerk for the High Court of American Samoa. So Churbanova spent her fourth-grade year in Samoa.

When she returned to Pulaski Academy for the fifth grade, they tried to put her in the lowest level math and English classes.

But her mother was having none of that.

“I actually got transferred into the tougher classes and did really well in them,” said Churbanova. “So I guess that’s when my parents thought I would be academically oriented.”

Churbanova said the only college she applied to was Princeton, an Ivy League school located in Princeton, N.J., midway between New York City and Philadelphia.

“I chose it because I really like they have a required senior thesis,” she said.

Churbanova said she was excited to have the opportunity to produce original academic work at Princeton.

Churbanova said she began studying the Chinese language while in the eighth grade at Pulaski Academy.

“I ended up just really liking it so I studied it all the way from eighth grade,” she said. “After I finished high school, I took a gap year and studied Chinese in Beijing.”

That was through the U.S. State Department’s National Security Language Initiative for Youth. However, that trip to China was cut short because of the covid-19 pandemic.

“I was in Beijing when covid struck in January of 2020, so I had to leave early,” she said. “So I’ve been trying to get back to China ever since then really.”

She’ll get that chance after graduation.

In December, Churbanova was named as a Schwarzman Scholar for 2024. As a result, she will receive a scholarship for a one-year master’s program at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Several Arkansans have gone to Ivy League schools, but it was difficult to determine how many had been named valedictorian.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette asked all eight Ivy League schools if their valedictorian or top graduate had ever been an Arkansan, but the universities that responded indicated they don’t have such records readily available.

“We tried to see if there were any valedictorians or salutatorians from Arkansas but were unable to determine this,” was the reply from Harvard University Media Relations.

“We don’t have any sort of class ranking information other than those students who received cum laude and related designations at time of graduation,” according to the University of Pennsylvania Archives and Records Center. “Unfortunately, we don’t have any running lists of academic honors students. That information is only noted in the individual commencement programs beginning in 1913 but there is no information in the commencement programs regarding home states of graduates.”

According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, Richard Sheppard Arnold, who grew up in Texarkana, Ark., graduated first in his class at Yale University in 1957 and first in his class at Harvard Law School in 1960. He went to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (which includes Arkansas) for 24 years, including seven years as the court’s chief judge. Arnold died in 2004.

Churbanova may be the first Arkansan since Arnold to achieve such an honor at one of America’s oldest and most prestigious universities. And she did so without having to leave Arkansas to go to a prep school in another state.

“Believe in yourself and be proud of your state background as well,” she said. “That’s really important.”

Churbanova