Awards Assembly honors outstanding students

Kelly Saiz
News Editor

On Friday, June 4, seniors, juniors, and a few sophomores received awards for their academic, co-curricular and creative achievements during the Senior Awards Assembly. The annual event took place in the auditorium, where teachers, students, and parents watched the hour and a half long show.

A high school tradition, the awards assembly has honored the merits of students for decades. Vice Principal Ari Rothman, who coordinated, organized, and MCed the event, thinks highly of the tradition. “We want to recognize the achievement of students in a variety of areas,” he said. “Every year I am impressed by the number and variety of the awards.”

Principal Tony Pavia’s secretary, Sue Morabito, says that process to select students for awards begins in February. “That’s when I start to contact people who were involved the previous year, whether by email or over the phone,” she said. “Later, the awards committee meets with various departments for their choices.”

Once the decisions have been made on the recipients of the awards, the students are informed by mail in late May that they will be receiving an award at the assembly, and they are given the option to accept or reject the invitation. However, they do not know which specific honor they have been awarded until they actually receive it.

Senior Stephanie Havens, who collected a total of five awards ( The Principal’s Achievement Award, National Merit Finalist, Norman Ricker Award for Creativity in Mathematics, Outstanding Student in Music Theory and Outstanding Female Vocalist),  said that it felt great to be recognized. “I felt very lucky to get so many awards because there were a lot of kids who could have gotten them,” she said.

Senior Victor Ciotkowski, winner of the Fritz Eager Merit Award and the Gregory Todd Memorial Award for his efforts in filmmaking, was also pleased. “It was an accomplishment to be recognized by the community,” he said. “It felt very good to be distinguished that way.”

Just weeks away from graduating, Stephanie has felt the payoff from her years of hard work. “It’s a combination of what happens when you get the decisions from colleges and the awards,” she said. “It shows you that it maybe was worth it to work so hard, even though it could be a pain in the neck sometimes.”

Since the assembly has been such a longstanding tradition, over the years more and more awards have been added. Because of this, Mr. Rothman and Ms. Morabito agreed that it needed to be streamlined. “We’re always really looking at trying to recognize as many kids as possible without diminishing the value [of winning the awards],” Mr. Rothman said.

NCTV broadcasted the assembly throughout the school, making the mandatory event difficult to ignore. Mr. Rothman says that it is important that fellow students honor the accomplishments of the graduating class. “It is a tradition that we recognize kids in front of their peers before they graduate,” he said.

Stephanie says that award winning is about more than the specific accomplishments. “It’s about working hard and doing what’s right above everything else,” she said. “Being someone who people can rely on and people can trust matters more than being on the very top.”

To Mr. Rothman, these students do more than just win awards – they are model students. “These are the kids that make us look good,” Mr. Rothman said.