Celebrating the bright minds

Story by Prajukta Ghosh- Copy Editor

Lee’s Summit North is celebrating its 26th Academic Achievement Award ceremony in person this year. After all the insanity with the pandemic students are finally able to find their way back to a normal regime. The event has existed as long as the high school itself has existed. It has had enormous success in the history of LSN and diverged a long way ever since then creating new legacies each year and setting new examples for the upcoming underclassmen. This tradition of LSN’s recognizing students and recipients for the hard work and dedication they put in their work from the beginning of the school year is a huge part of the school’s system. 

   “It has been around for a long time and it has had different people running it and setting it all up. It is a lot of work and we start in February and basically work very hard to gather all the information but it’s been a tradition at Lee’s Summit North to recognize academic achievement since the school opened,” Frau Parker, German teacher, said. 

   There is a lot of prep work that goes into making this day a successful hit, with Mrs. Courney starting to accumulate names of all the students who had earned a weighted GPA of at least a 4.0, and then it goes from there to gathering information about students who had earned local scholarships or recognition, to awarding the top one percent of students in each class, which generally consists of five students from each grade level. Also, there is a department award category, where each department in our building chooses students based on their own criteria for “Student of the Year”.

   “Students contribute by showing up. Because the whole idea of academic achievement to me is intrinsic, and the hard work that goes into it needs to be recognized. They are being recognized for the hard work they have done either that year if they’re freshmen or over the course of four years which is a long time in anyone’s life and it is a big chunk. So it is an investment and commitment and there is a lot of discipline and motivation that was put into that academic achievement and recognizing that I think is very important which helps maintain intrinsic motivation,” Parker said. 

   However this year, due to covid, the school has made sure to implement the Jackson County health measures to maintain a safe environment for the entire student body and faculty members to trend the ceremony. The event was live-streamed on Youtube for parents and family members to watch it from home since they would not be able to attend considering the constraints in the situation.

(Photo by Robert Hurst)