MVHS hosted its annual senior awards ceremony on Thursday May 21 at 7 p.m., honoring 69 seniors across 23 different categories for their achievements during their time in high school. Each award was introduced with a brief description of the recipient’s contributions for a given award before the name of the award recipient was announced.
Senior Sophia D’Sa was awarded the National Merit Scholarship and Speech Boosters, for her involvement in MVHS’s Speech and Debate club, along with the final award of the night — the Service Above Self Award — which is awarded to one student on campus who impacts the school positively in various ways. She says that, because she has spoken to Principal Ben Clausnitzer about her involvement on campus, and up until the last award, the information she shared with him hadn’t come up when introducing her other awards.
“Oh my god, it was surreal,” D’Sa said. “I kind of knew, but I was almost willing myself not to believe it or bank on it until he actually said my name. But he didn’t tell me what I was getting, so I didn’t know for certain that this was going to happen.”
Senior Anusha Barave, honored by Speech Boosters, shares how inspiring it has been to teach students at Kennedy Middle School since she had first been introduced to speech through the club’s summer camp. With the knowledge she’s gained after four years, she hopes future speech members carry forward an appreciation for the skills that speech requires and the community that comes with the club.
“Surprisingly, a lot of people who go into speech come in very introverted,” Barave said. “They come out being able to articulate themselves to a lot of different people, present themselves well and communicate ideas well. It’s an important skill. And on top of that, they have such nice community service.”
Junior Aeshna Chatterji, along with other students from leadership, also attended the event to help Assistant Principal Mike White set up. She shares how even though her involvement in the event was limited, she was excited to be part of the moment. Her favorite moment from the award ceremony was the Service Above Self Award presentation.
“At our school, a lot of the focus is on helping yourself and getting ahead,” Chatterji said. “So it was nice to see how people are commended for helping the community.”
