If there’s one thing people love, it’s getting rewarded for their hard work. Senior Awards was the perfect opportunity for our seniors to receive well-deserved recognition, as they got called up on stage to be honored in front of their classmates and parents for their outstanding achievements in various fields of academics, extracurricular activities, arts, and athletics. The event was organized by the current Junior Class ASB, composed of Junior Class President Jennifer Ko and Junior Class Cabinet members Winston Chou, Jane Kang, Preston Tong, and Taylor Huang. It lasted for 2 hours and featured numerous speeches from various student-scholars and performances from seniors engaged in our school’s VAPA programs.
The night opened off with a lengthy reflective speech from our Senior Class Cabinet, composed of Senior Class President Carlo Repetto and Senior Class Cabinet members Abby Geng, Hillary Zheng, Daniel Wong, and Valeri Zhu. Repetto first gave a speech introducing the audience to the auspicious occasion and then passed the mic off to Wong, who gave an impassioned speech lifting up former Valentine Elementary Students. This speech was followed by Zheng’s speech about Carver, as she placed heavy emphasis on the pioneering qualities of Carver Students, in particular mentioning the school’s infamous “wedding”. Repetto, Geng, and Zhu closed of the speeches by bringing up fond memories of middle school and high school and then passed it off to the Junior Cab and school departments to handle the rest of the awards show. Awards were handed out for a variety of honors including outstanding achievements in various academic subjects such as english and math, outstanding performances in our school’s athletics teams, scholarship awards, army commitments, and important contributions to the San Marino Community. Various groups of students were also honored including this year’s Prometheans, who were awarded the highest possible honor our school offers. Speeches were also given by Drum Major Daphne Ko, Speech and Debate Vice President Davis Liang, DCO Captains Anni Zhao and Jodie Chon, and Robotics cabinet Nathan Wang, Nathan Chan, Barron Hsu, and Anton Potts, as they reflected on their school experiences. “It was really cool getting to hear all my friends cheer my name every time I went up to get an award,” Jeremy Karkafi said. “Overall, I really don’t think it’s too important to win a lot of awards because it’s ultimately up to how you personally feel, but I will say being granted these awards, such as the Chinese Club’s Exceptional Service to Community, made me feel proud of my school’s accomplishments.”
The night finished with an acapella performance from all choir seniors and the seniors were ushered outside the Neher to take photos with friends and family as their time at SMHS came to a nostalgic end.
