On Friday, October 14, 2016, Bernards students and faculty all gathered in the performing arts center for an annual awards ceremony to celebrate achievements of BHS students from last year. Last year’s seniors (now college freshmen) had a Senior Awards Ceremony of their own in June, and both ceremonies have had a long record at BHS. After a rendition of the national anthem of one of our most talented students and a spoken oath by our student council members, awards were allotted. Awards received by students were for achievements such as academic success, doing well on language exams, getting high scores on mathematics exams, and for earning an oversupply of service learning hours.
Success in the academic department was rampant last year, almost 70 students in grades 9-11 in the last school year receiving the Academic Excellence Award, which is given to those earning a final grade of all A’s at the end of the school year. One of our seniors ended up earning the Wellesley College Book award for incredible scholastic accomplishment later on in the ceremony, and as part the National Merit Scholarship Program, BHS honored 7 National Merit Commended Students and 1 Semifinalist.
In general, Bernards students performed outstandingly on national language exams last year and were awarded as such. “Fifty BHS students took the 2016 National Latin Exam and 19 of them received awards including 7 receiving a silver medal,” says BHS secretary Mrs. Collins. “BHS had 7 medal winners and 40 honorable mentions in the 2016 National French Contest [and] there were 42 Honorable Mentions, 9 Bronze Medals, 12 Silver Medals, and 2 Gold Medals in the National Spanish Exam.”
Two awards were issued for exceptional performance on the American Mathematics Competition (AMC) assessment: the AMC 10 Award (for obtaining the highest score out of last year’s freshmen and sophomores) and AMC 12 award (for obtaining the highest score out of last year’s juniors and seniors).
A handful of exceptionally dedicated BHS students were awarded for going above what was necessary and expected in regards to earning community service hours. For the 29 students who did so, performing over 100 hours of service learning lent the Century Club Service award. Four students even went as far as to accomplish the feat of performing over 200 hours of service learning, and received the Platinum Club Award in turn. The HSA Service Award was given to only one student, which honors a senior completed via a variety of activities over 200 hours of service learning in their junior year.
“The assembly ended,” says Mrs. Collins, “with [a] reading of all students who received the score of 5 on at least one AP Test. There were 9 Juniors and 39 Seniors who were acknowledged, [and] many of them had several AP scores of 5 or more.”
Bernards High School has held the fall awards ceremony for a long time, and for one reason: to properly distinguish those in our school that have done far better than expected.
