Credit: Marissa Mendoza

On Monday, June 10, the annual Underclassmen Awards ceremony took place inside of WHS’s auditorium. “I think that these awards bring motivation to [WHS] students to preform well academically,” Sophomore Rufat Hasanov said.

On Monday, June 10, WHS hosted the annual Underclassmen Awards ceremony, which recognizes students’ performance and academic achievements in a series of subjects. The ceremony took place inside WHS’s auditorium after school from 3:30 p.m. to 4:40 p.m.. After the ceremony, the WHS Parent Teacher Organization (WHS PTO) provided an arrangement of desserts, including ice cream sandwiches, popsicles and different types of cookies, presented on a table in the commons.

Principal Allyson Mizoguchi emailed award recipients their invitations to the ceremony. During the ceremony, department heads announced the names of the students who received these awards. Some students received an award, while others received multiple. Freshman Margaret Agyeman received seven awards this year.

“I feel really grateful for [my] awards, [and] I’m proud of myself,” Agyeman said. “I was definitely not expecting to receive seven awards [this year]. No one alerted me about any of the awards, [so] I had no clue which awards I was receiving.”

While there are academic and art awards, there are other awards that recognize students’ leadership and service achievements as well. Sophomore Kate Goodman was the recipient of the Robert Steel Tenacity award, along with two other awards.

“I received the digital art and photography award, the Robert Steel tenacity award and the wellness award.” Goodman said. “I’m really excited about these awards, but I was not expecting the digital art and photography award because I didn’t feel that I was strong enough in that category.Getting my name called up [for] the awards made me feel really excited and proud of myself for all the work I have done. I think that this ceremony is really helpful for students to feel recognized and happy about the [school] year and all their hard work.”

The Robert Steel Tenacity Award, formerly known as the Robert Steel Achievement Award, is awarded to any student who embodies the characteristics of former WHS custodian Bob Steel. This award is given in honor and memory of Steel. Along with this award, there were awards given out that were sponsored by universities that represented these schools’ ambitions.

“I got one underclassman award for AP [United States Government and Politics] and one book award from St. Bonaventure University,” junior Anna Varney said. “I think [all of these awards] help inspire and push underclassmen to continue to work hard in the following year. I think we are at a really competitive school, so it’s really easy to get burned out from working very hard to get good grades. So I think getting a little reminder that people are recognizing how hard you are working is very inspiring and admirable.”

Some students didn’t expect to receive the awards they did. According to Varney, establishing a relationship with teachers can be helpful if students want to receive rewards in the future.

“I think a big part of getting an award is also having a relationship with your teachers in general, and I think this is always helpful, especially as you’re nearing junior year because you need to ask for letters of recommendation,” Varney said. “I’d really just advise trying to build a relationship with all your teachers because it will help with your learning and possibly get you an award in the future.”