Jun Gesteland is the co-captain of the robotics team and a leader in many aspects of the music department at Metuchen High School. The senior enjoys being a part of a community, whether that community is his school life or the rest of New Jersey.
Jun plays the violin in many orchestras, including the Metuchen High School Chamber Orchestra, the Metuchen High School Concert Orchestra, and the Chamber Summer Orchestra. To join the Chamber Orchestra, Jun had to audition. Outside of the high school music program, Gesteland plays the violin in an orchestra that plays for New Jersey communities. In doing this, the senior received the Presidential Volunteer Service Award.
When explaining his love for music, Jun remarked, “I just love that sense of community!” In the high school music program, he is the president of the Tri-M National Honors Society. As such, Jun organizes fundraisers and community service opportunities for the members to participate in. Last year, Tri-M made 1,000 dollars for the Paterson Music Project. The senior also enjoys being a snare in the drumline for the Pride of Metuchen Marching Band. Although he only participated in the drumline during his senior year, he decided to join after seeing his brother Kai's positive experience with the program.
Jun also loves engineering and robotics as evidenced by his role as co-captain of the robotics team at the high school. This team is relatively new, starting in 2019 when they won the Rookie All-Star award. The team’s goal is to qualify for the district championships and, in 2022, the team made it to the semifinals of their competition. The robotics team starts their season in January when they have six weeks to design, build, and test their robots.
Jun explains that there are five teams: mechanical, electrical, business, programming, and Computer Aided Design (CAD). Each team works together in order to build a robot to compete against the other teams. The senior not only enjoys the engineering aspect of the robotics team, but he also enjoys that “the team is filled with passionate students who care about what they are doing.”
Outside of his school life, Jun has attended a Japanese school since Kindergarten. Gesteland exclaims, “this is another community that I’m a part of that means a lot to me.” At this school, the senior takes normal high school classes, such as history and math. At Metuchen High School, Jun enjoys his science classes, specifically his AP chemistry and AP environmental science classes. When talking about AP environmental science, he gives a shout-out to Ms. Kato, saying that she is such an amazing teacher. Jun enjoys many of the sciences because they often connect to everyday life.
When asked about his brothers, the senior says that they are very different from one another. He explains that each triplet has their own individual interests. From an academic perspective, his brother Kai enjoys genetics, while his other brother Sena likes politics. Meanwhile, Jun differs from his brothers because he enjoys chemistry and environmental science. Whether it is playing an instrument or listening to music, the triplets all have an appreciation for music.
The senior’s favorite memories from his high school years all surround Metuchen’s close-knit community. Although he believes that the town is a little too small for him, Jun is happy that the school is full of people who value their education like he does. After graduation, he will miss the small-town community feeling.
Jun’s inspiration is his robotics mentors who work for companies like Google and Amazon. He looks forward to talking with them because they push the entire robotics team to succeed in both engineering and life. The senior explains that these mentors bring so much energy to everything that they do, and it makes Jun want to have that same energy in all activities.
Gesteland’s advice to the underclassmen is to explore and find their passion. High school will be more fun if the underclassmen try new things earlier on because students get busier as they get older. Jun also explains that colleges look for people who are driven to succeed in what they love. We wish him on all of his future endeavors!
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