Besides scholarships, many high school students were given awards by their teachers for their performance over the school year. Pictured here is Jonah Comstock (left) and CTE Instructor Drew Larrabee. Comstock was given the "drafting student of the year" award for one of his shop projects, where he made a topographical map of Wrangell Island.
Jacob Hammer receives a pat on the back from Rayme Privett after winning the Stikine Sportsmen's Scholarship.
Friends, family, and school staff all crowded into the gym at Wrangell High School last Monday afternoon for an awards ceremony. With graduation just around the corner, the senior class of 2019 was the primary star of the show, with 25 different scholarship programs present to recognize the graduating students. WHS counselor Aimee Romeijn said that she was not sure how much money was given out, in total, but about 45 scholarships were awarded to the seniors.
Jean-Luc Lewis received the most out of his class, earning 16 scholarships in total. He received scholarships from the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce, the University of Alaska Scholars Program, The Sealaska Heritage Institute, and several others. Lewis said, after the ceremony, that he plans to attend Brown University.
Seven high school students earned the Alaska Performance Scholarship, given out by the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education. This scholarship requires that high school students follow a specific high school curriculum, achieve high grades on their ACT or SAT tests, and maintain a strong GPA through high school. According to the ACPE's website, to achieve the highest level of the scholarship available, a GPA of 3.5 is required, as well as an ACT score of 25 or 1210 on the SAT. The seven winners of this scholarship were Lewis, Dillon Rooney, Elizabeth Johnson, Abigail Gerald, Kellan Eagle, Riley Blatchley, and Helen Decker.
Decker, Lewis, and Eagle were also recognized for receiving advanced diplomas this year. The diploma is meant to recognize certain students who put in extra work through their high school career and demonstrate exceptional grades. According to Secondary School Principal David Macri, students must meet a 28 credit requirement for the advanced degree. There are four credits in math, four in science, four in language arts, three and a half credits in social studies, three in vocational education, three in fine arts, and the remaining credits as electives. They must also maintain a 3.7 or higher GPA.
"You always hear about working hard and how if you work hard, you can get anything you want, basically," Macri said. "I love people that work hard, it's really good. You know what I really like? People that work smart. If you can give me a person who works hard and a person that works smart, it's really difficult to beat them. So you seniors, you've worked hard. Start figuring out how to work smart, as well, and combine those two things. You'll be successful for the rest of your life."
Scholarships were not the only thing passed out at the awards ceremony. Teachers also had the opportunity to present awards to students who stood out to them over the course of the year. Awards were given out in a wide variety of categories, from language arts to student government. Drew Larrabee, CTE teacher, presented numerous awards to students from his shop class. Some were meant as jokes, such as Kendra Meissner receiving the "safety award" for being reminded the most times in class to wear her safety goggles, or Dillon Rooney receiving a "proving Mr. Larrabee right" award for losing a fingernail to a disc sander.
Jonah Comstock was given more serious recognition for one of his projects, a topographical map of Wrangell Island.
Other awards were given by the technology department, the math department, the Shakes Glacier Team, and others.
Senior Stone Guggenbickler was also given recognition for having perfect attendance for all four years of high school.
Before the awards ceremony came to a close, the student body took the opportunity to give special recognition to one of the school staff. Decker, Lewis, and Blatchley presented a bouquet of flowers and a plate of cookies to Romeijn for all her help with scholarship and college applications, and helping many of the students make it to graduation.
"She does so much for our school, and especially for our seniors," Decker said. "Most of us, would probably have only gotten, like, one scholarship, and instead we had a list of maybe a hundred national, state, and local scholarships. Not only that, but she helps a ton with college applications and she just gives us resources that are honestly invaluable."
After the ceremony, two seniors took the opportunity to talk about their future, and some of the lessons they had learned through high school. Lewis said that he plans to attend Brown University, while Eagle said he will be going to Montana State University. They both wanted to share some advice with the high school students they will be leaving behind. Eagle said that college and scholarship applications were, in his opinion, both easier and harder than he thought they would be when he first began applying. As long as students manage their time well and keep on top of deadlines, the application process is fairly easy.
"Most of the colleges nowadays have a simple website," Eagle said. "The application is pretty simple, essays are always a thing. Scholarships were super easy with Ms. Romeijn helping us out. She laid out a whole Google Doc, had it filtered by the dates it was due, whether it was national, state, or local, the amount, who to apply to, whether it was a website or mail, it just worked really well with her. I was super happy with how everything went."
Lewis agreed with Eagle that time management was the main key on avoiding stress when it came to college and scholarship applications. He also added some advice for younger students, who were about to begin their high school education. He said that it was a great opportunity to explore new hobbies or to find something to be passionate about. All the different clubs, classes, and opportunities available in high school look good on resumes and college applications, and it is also a good time to learn and grow as a person.
"Take advantage of what Wrangell has, because there are a lot of great opportunities here," Lewis said. "They do really look good on resumes and everything. Just try to take advantage of the opportunities that are provided through the school and the community, and definitely try to give back to the community because they do so much."
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