Academic Student Awards honor 10 at lunch ceremony

By Sebastian Gonzales,
Bluedevilhub.com Editor–

Ten students were honored in the Academic Center (AC) at lunch on Mar. 13 by parents, students and faculty for their hard work and effort to maintain or improve their grades.

In the second year the awards have been given out, the “Academic Student Awards” honored 10 of 80 nominees who had shown extraordinary effort in performing well in academics and who had spent large amounts of time receiving assistance in the Academic Center.

According to AC coordinator and director of the award ceremony Marie Michell, UC Davis student volunteer tutors that work at the Academic Center nominated 10 students each month over a span of eight months and the top ten of those 80 nominees were acknowledged Friday.

To commemorate the extraordinary effort applied by the students, the winners posed for a picture with Principal William Brown and Vice Principal Tom McHale and were given a certificate as well as a $10 gift card paid for by a grant given by Principal Brown.

“We want to say thank you to the students for pursuing education”, said Michell. “Mr. Brown gave us some money to support the awards, and we wanted to give it back to the students. Gift cards were the best way to do that.”

According to junior Jesus Godoy, one of the 10 winners, the tutor nomination process happens anonymously.

“I wish I knew who it was so I could thank them (the tutor), it’s a huge honor to win this award,” Godoy said.

In order to whittle down through the 80 original nominees, Michell and her colleagues met each month and graded the monthly nominees based on a rubric of attendance, organization, grades, assignments and effort categories, Michell says.

In support of their peers, upwards of 20 students, as well as about 10 Davis High teacher, could be seen at the ceremony enjoying the pizza and orange slices provided by the AC parents were encouraged to attend as well, however only a few seemed to be able to make it.