Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Celebrating Academic Excellence!

I wanted to share some pictures from our Academic Jacket Ceremony and share the history behind this newly established award for our seniors.  The pride and love that was felt that night in the auditorium is inspiring. Parents and family sharing in great academic accomplishments is what makes all the sacrifice worthwhile. 

The history of wearing a varsity jacket originated over 100 years ago. This time honored tradition is an outward symbol of hard work, determination and perseverance. Often the letter, pins and stars recognize athleticism and great accomplishments in a sport. At the Superintendent’s Academic Jacket Ceremony, we honor our students who have demonstrated great achievement in the classroom and maintained a grade point average of 3.75 or higher for their first three years of high school. I began this tradition of acknowledging students for academic excellence over 18 yrs ago and I am very excited and proud to be able to establish this tradition with Isle of Wight County Schools. With the assistance of a great sponsor, GCA, I am pleased that IWCS was able to present an academic jacket to over 80 extraordinary seniors.

Honoring accomplishments in academics lets students know that we appreciate the many hours of studying, note taking, reading, writing papers, listening to lectures, working in groups, and staying up after everyone is asleep to finish a project. This prestigious award celebrates the academic achievement of our top students, knowing that one of them may find the cure to cancer or life beyond our universe. To our accomplished students--we honor you; we honor your parents and the loved ones that have supported you throughout your academic journey. We congratulate the educators that helped each one of you meet your goals. We honor our future academic jacket recipients as they strive to one day earn their own academic jacket. Congratulations to all our honorees.