Hoover High Honors Students of All Seasons
Seniors were honored at Hoover High’s “Student of All Seasons” award ceremony.
Sir Thomas More was born around this time of year back in the 15th century. In 1966, just a few years before Hoover High School began, a movie about him called A Man For All Seasons won the Oscar for Best Picture. More was a lawyer, philosopher, author, statesman and enough of an ecclesiastic rabble rouser that these days he’s referred to as St. Thomas in some quarters. The movie title has come to denote any person who’s successful in a wide range of activities.
And it’s in that spirit that an annual ceremony – Students of All Seasons – was established at Hoover to honor seniors who’ve made their marks in a broad range of extra-curricular activities that don’t always draw the fanfare that say, athletics, do for instance.
This morning 24 nominees shared breakfast in the school library with their parents before proceeding to the gym where the rest of the student body, complete with cheerleaders and the pep band, assembled to recognize their contributions in disciplines including art, band, orchestra, choir, science, math, journalism, drama, business and even, yes, athletics. Today the kids who do their best work when nobody’s watching, much less cheering, got ovations for decoding logarithms, rerunning experiments and working backstage. In addition to their extensive extra-curricular involvements each of the nominees also was required to carry a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher. Their plans for next year and beyond are as wide-ranging as their high school interests and activities. Some are headed to Iowa State. One will choose between MIT and Notre Dame. Another plans to work at her church and there is even one young woman intent on studying mortuary science.
Nominations were determined by Hoover faculty and staff. From that group the student body voted and five were chosen as winners of the 2013 Student of all Seasons award.
They are:
- Natalie Clark
- Chris Dejoode
- Avery Jackson
- Lynn Lewis
- Madelyn Plain
Oh, one more thing. Every time Hoover holds an all-school assembly there is a contest to decide which of the four classes deserves to hold the “spirit stick” by virtue of the loudest, most enthusiastic rendition of the school’s victory chant. The Class of 2013 was 3-0 for the year coming into this morning’s event. It came down to 12th graders against 9th graders this time and the seniors would want it noted that they kept the stick from the frosh. After all, this occasion was all about them.
The rest of the Students of All Seasons nominees were:
- Dominique Berry
- Nicholas Crowell
- Zach Dichoff
- Erin Dungan
- Antonio Ibarra
- Dzana Memic
- Zaynaba Musa
- Riley Mortenson
- E Shwe Say
- Ann Strom
- Joshua Joy
- Mu Girl Lay
- Ti Reh
- Elizabeth Lockin
- Matt Pearson
- Imani Mitchell
- Kingsley Jewett
- Savana Robinson
- Rachel Prideaux
- Thang Tom Bing
- Thanh Lai
