2020 Honor Roll: Exemplary Students at Dakota Ridge
Parents, students, and administrators came together at Dakota Ridge High School on Tuesday to celebrate the high academic achievements of fall Honor Roll students. This was a day for students to get recognition for their academic achievements by receiving awards for a GPA of 3.8 or higher.
The assemblies of the last two years have been a bit different, due to the school’s new policy of making it optional-attendance for those who did not receive an award and moving the actual ceremony to the auditorium instead of the gym.
The assembly started at about 8:30 a.m. when the Eagleaires sang the National Anthem. Brenda Lucas, an assistant principal at DRHS, then led the ceremony, explaining how Honor Roll works. “The student body is amazing,” Lucas said.
The ranking of students with high GPAs is placed into two different categories: Silver is 3.8-3.99, and Gold is 4.0+. Students earn a DR chenille letter as one of their awards, which is an additional motivational factor. If students score a 3.8 or 4.0 after they initially letter, they get awarded a pin to put on their chenille letter. Students can earn bars multiple times.
“I think it went really well. The first time I did it …I ran out of room for the parents, because it was the first time through, so that was a little overwhelming. Today I had moved more students up on stage, so I put five rows of students up on stage and made four extra rows in the back for parents,” Lucas said.
For some students, not making the Honor Roll can be disappointing. “I am a little bummed out that I wasn’t on honor roll,” Charissa Rawlins (9) said.
Other students, however, have shown a lack of interest through the years which is one reason why the school changed this assembly format. It was also difficult to maintain a respectful tone during the assembly. “People can’t be respectful even for a small amount of time, which is sad, but it’s not fair to the people who put in the work,” Rawlins said.