Attended by over 500 students, proud parents and family members, the CCHS Annual Spring Awards Program was held on Sunday, May 19th in Cathedral Catholic’s Claver Center. It is at Cathedral’s annual awards ceremony that students from all four classes are recognized for their academic excellence, outstanding citizenship, athletic achievement, and exceptional Christian service. The Spring Awards Program includes the announcement of recipients and presentation of more than 25 scholarships – both from within the Cathedral family as well as from outside organizations that request to participate in this recognition event.
This year’s Spring Awards Program, which happened to fall on Pentecost Sunday and marked the culmination of the 2012 – 2013 school year, was opened by Principal Mike Deely at the podium welcoming this year’s awards recipients and guests. Father Michael Ortiz offered the opening prayer during which he called upon the Lord Jesus to, “inspire us all this evening to be the type of leaders that your disciples were on that first Pentecost Sunday.”
Mr. Deely praised students for this “opportunity where we stop to recognize our students for their spiritual, academic, athletic, artistic, and leadership accomplishments as well as to recognize them for the several community awards that come their way. As we come together here, it is a worthy to do this because they have worked so hard get to this point. And particularly we recognize our seniors for all their hard work for four years. This is also an opportunity to celebrate families because without parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and friends, they would not be here. There is so much that goes behind the success of each and every student here.”
This year, Mr. Deely called upon members of the ASB to assist with host emcee duties and the announcement of awards during portions of the program. The many awards were elegantly displayed on long tables draped with floor length red linens. Awards varied from medals hung on red and gold ribbons to trophies, plaques, gold metal plates, and etched glass. The beautiful Cathedral crest served as a striking backdrop against which awards and scholarship recipients gathered to have their photos taken by family members after the conclusion of the program.
Among the many noteworthy recognitions of the evening were three National Merit Scholarship Finalists who were chosen from among the top one percent nationally of high school seniors based upon PSAT scores (taken during junior year). Also significant was the recognition of Outstanding Academic Achievement Awards to more than 80 freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior students who earned a cumulative 4.0 or higher grade-point average every semester since the beginning of freshman year.
With proud teachers, parents and family members looking on, more than 100 Cathedral students were recognized with awards and scholarships. Top senior class awards will be announced during the Senior Class Luncheon on May 31.
