“I liked how everyone was dressed so professionally and came together,” said senior Arina Megerdichian at the conclusion of last week’s senior awards night. “And came together to really present the values of professionalism that our school continuously promotes.”

On Wednesday, May 17, seniors were invited alongside parents, to arrive at school around 7 p.m. to be awarded for their accomplishments. Senior awards night is an annual tradition that recognizes seniors for achievements they have accomplished throughout their four years of high school.

Before the start of the event, parents were seated in the auditeria while students lined up alphabetically outside in two lines. “I had no idea what to expect,” said senior Anik Boyadzhyan. “Seniors were only given an invitation during class and I had no idea what awards I would receive.” At around 7:10, the program started following the procession of the seniors.

The ceremony began with Principal Lina Kortoshian welcoming everybody for coming to the event and praising the seniors for their four years of academic success. Kortoshian also acknowledged the presence of various Board of Education members such as the president, Nayiri Nahabedian.

“Overall, it was nice to see us get recognized,” said senior John Jerald Cruz Junio. “We put in a lot of work so to see it pay off bought satisfaction.” Various students were awarded for many different accomplishments. These accomplishments included subject awards, PTSA academic awards, perfect attendance for four years and CSF awards. “I was really embarrassed for receiving the perfect attendance award, but my parents were really proud,” Boyadzhyan said.

The award with the most recipients was the Bilingual Competency Award. Students qualified for this award by passing a District examination, completing four years of a foreign language with a minimum B grade, or earn passing scores on AP language exams. These languages included Spanish, Armenian, Arabic, Armenian/Russian and Armenian/Spanish. The stage was the most full out of all the other awards and students received a certificate. “The different language speakers were fascinating as it showed the diversity that exists in our school,” said Armin Sadeghi.

There was one student who did not get recognized for his awards such as the CSF award, Kuba Nogalski. Nogalski has been hospitalized for over a month and is unable to attend school due to medical reasons. “Unfortunately, the administration failed to properly recognize Kuba and disregarded the efforts he exhausted in the past four years of his high school career,” Megerdichian said.