At first, it wasn’t easy for Ayen Mihidukulasuriya to make friends at Port Richmond High School.

“I was always isolated. I tried to isolate myself. I tried to push myself academically, while my social life was, iffy, if I could say,” Mihidukulasuriya said.

He was new to the city — and to the country, having spent most of his life in Sri Lanka.

He had attended private international schools, where discipline and competition reigned. He didn’t find that in his neighborhood public school. But he found something else.

“Something I saw that was more valuable than that private school environment was, again, community — in those schools, we never had a community. We were all like, 'I am for myself.' In this school, it was different,” Mihidukulasuriya said.

And Mihidukulasuriya worked hard. He was named the school’s valedictorian — an honor he says has helped him come out of his bubble.

“Something I appreciate more than getting valedictorian in the school is, I appreciate the classmates that I studied with, the people who I got to meet, the people who I got to know through this experience,” Mihidukulasuriya said.

As he took a practice walk across the stage a day before graduation, the relationships he had made were obvious.

“Mihidukulasuriya has gotten involved in every aspect of this building, and he’s probably, in addition to being valedictorian, one of the most popular students in this building,” said principal Andrew Greenfield. “And you heard, at graduation rehearsal when they called his name, the entire auditorium cheered for him.”

Mihidukulasuriya says coming to school here was a cultural challenge for him — but it was one that was worth overcoming.

“I felt like I couldn’t be in a much better place, because I got to experience a whole other world, and that world actually improved me,” Mihidukulasuriya saud.

Port Richmond isn’t the only school impressed by him. He’s received some big college acceptances.

He rattled just a few of them off: “Columbia, MIT, Brown, Princeton.”

But Mihidukulasuriya, who hopes to study medicine and become a cardiologist, is staying close to home — attending the Macaulay honors program at Hunter College.

"Talent or potential is not diminished by going to a smaller school,” Mihidukulasuriya said.

His principal agrees, and couldn't be prouder.

"He’s a young man that is going to change the world, and we’ll be hearing from him 20 and 30 years from now,” Greenfield said.