At the end of every year, Mira Costa’s juniors and seniors have the opportunity to be honored by each academic department. While the reasoning behind this is well-founded, Mira Costa should reward freshmen and sophomores as well to incentivize students throughout all four years.
At the All Awards Ceremony on May 28, teachers presented departmental awards, decided on by the Costa staff, to juniors and seniors, book awards from various universities to juniors, and the Student of the Year award. Costa should change the departmental awards to allow for exceptional students from every grade to be recognized.
In order to effectively incorporate all students into the ceremony, Costa should reference other high schools’ recognition ceremonies. For example, Marymount High School holds an award ceremony that is similar to Costa’s All Awards Ceremony, in which the administration hands out awards to freshmen, sophomores and juniors. Seniors are later recognized during graduation. Awarding younger students would provide encouragement and the opportunity to enhance their resumes.
According to Marymount junior Meghan McMahon, seniors often use the awards that they have achieved throughout their high school career to give them an advantage in the college application process. When Costa students apply to schools, they do not have the same accolades as students at other schools who have received awards from their teachers throughout their entire high school careers. The current awards ceremeony prioritizes upper classman awards, preventing students from listing the awards for college applicaitons.
Costa should have department awards intended for each class specifically so that underclassmen have a chance to be recognized. Costa’s freshmen and sophomores will then have the same advantage as others when compiling their achievements for their college applications, making them more appealing applicants.
According to Costa College and Career Counselor Megen Anspach, colleges look at the “whole package” of awards students receive throughout high school, and each piece strengthens their overall application. By providing awards to individuals in every grade, Costa would give students the chance to show consistent excellence and progression of skills.
The General Excellence Award at Marymount is an award given to a student from each grade that excelled in all of his or her classes. Costa’s Student of the Year award recognizes the senior that best represents the best all-around student at Costa based on academic records and extra-curricular activities. McMahon believes that the General Excellence Award of Marymount motivates students to try harder throughout the year. Because Costa only gives this type of award to a senior, it misses the opportunity to motivate students of all grades levels to achieve excellence every year.
Through expanding the All Awards Ceremony to include recognition of all grade levels, Costa will give students more motivation to excel academically, as well as provide students with the opportunity to show colleges their growth and progress throughout high school.
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