Academic Excellence

Academic+Excellence

Thursday, December 5, was the Academic Excellence ceremony; it takes place once every year.  To be qualified for Academic Excellence, a student must earn a 90 or above GPA with no semester grade below a 75, from the previous school year. The ceremony started off with Principal James welcoming the students and their families. NJROTC did the presentation of colors and the Pledge of Allegiance. The national anthem was sung by GBHS Choir.

The Academic Excellence Ceremony was for grades 10-12. Students who are in 10th grade got an Academic Excellence award plaque. Students who are in 11th grade got their letterman  if they paid for it. Having a letterman is a high school tradition. Not everyone is qualified to get a letterman. Students must meet a certain criteria, which is why they must work hard. The students who are in 12th grade got a letter  “B”, which is a patch that says Academic Excellence on it that goes on their letterman. The seniors who already had a letterman were the ones that got the patch. Some of the seniors who didn’t already have a letterman got it instead of just getting the patch.

Getting academic excellence is not as easy as people make it seem.

“The hardest class to keep up with to get academic was geometry Pre-Ap . Too much was going on. Everything was fast paced,” Favour Okezie said.

Many students felt accomplished from this award.

“Walking across that stage receiving my letterman made me feel a sense of relief knowing everything I worked hard for, all those nights I stayed up studying doing homework, and tutorials paid off. Not only does it make myself feel accomplished by walking across that stage, but knowing my parents were proud was the true accomplishment,” Brittney Jaimes said.

Many of the students that received this award will work hard in order to continue to be successful.

” In order for me to continue to be successful in high school, I will start preparing for college as best as I can. I will develop new studying skills that will help me get good grades on my exams in college. Not only will I develop good studying skills, I will also develop organized note taking strategies to help me retain information from class better,” Brittney Jaimes said.

The 2019 Academic Excellence ceremony was  memorable to most people, especially the seniors because it was their last one in high school.

By E.O.