 And if I could have your attention, please, we are ready to begin our class of 2021 Senior Awards Assembly. Yeah, let's give ourselves a round of applause. We made it. Before we get started here today, anybody who comes to speak of a mic, please feel free to take your mask off. You do not need to wear your mask while you're talking at the mic. And it's easier for people to hear from what I've heard. So today, we get to honor many of you for the ways in which you made it through your four years of high school. Although not everyone in this room will get an award today, you should know that each of you is deserving of recognition and how you navigated these last 15 months of your high school career. And you made it to today, this week, and eventually Friday, to say goodbye to your high school days and hello to your next chapter. Today is one more opportunity for us to gather, spend time together with one another, recognize a group of students who showed up in different ways throughout their high school career, and then we will move on to Friday's celebration, which includes honoring each of you for an amazing 13-year journey. We will begin today by dedicating this year's yearbook. So Allison Waring, Megan Cruzman, and Evan Rohan, will the three of you come to the stage, please? So as co-editors of the yearbook, we're here to present the 2020-2021 yearbook dedication. Before we announce the recipient, we would like to share a few words that this teacher's students and colleagues had to say about them. One of this teacher's students shared that they boosted their confidence and prepared them for early college. Another said that this teacher is very dedicated to teaching and cares about the student's work. They're also very interested in making connections with us and they put in effort to make class fun. This teacher was very helpful in improving my writing and gave me constructive feedback. Yet another shared this teacher is very dedicated to the school and their classes. This year they did a lot for the seniors with the college essay writing class and their electives. Finally, one student described this teacher as incredibly kind, thoughtful, and an all-around great person. This teacher's class was difficult, but they made it enjoyable, and I feel like they always had my best interest at heart. This teacher's colleagues also had a few words to share about them. Mr. McLean said, so much of this teacher's strength as an educator flows from their natural and persistent commitment in setting high standards for their students and their deft ability in creating thoughtful, crafted roadmaps of engaging activities. Learning experience and feedback loops to help their students reach those high standards. Way cool. Through their many years of working with students, this teacher has demonstrated an incredible ability to facilitate student growth and perspective taking, empathy, and self-awareness. All powerful skills and dispositions for this teacher's student to carry forward in their lives. To put it more simply, this teacher is a beloved master teacher and mentor to many students and adults alike, who MHS is deeply fortunate to have as part of our soul in learning community. And personally speaking, I am so grateful to call this teacher not only a colleague, but also a good friend. Thank you and congratulations on this most well-deserved yearbook dedication. Ms. Squire shared, I've learned so much from this teacher. They know how to listen, how to think quietly, and how to say the right thing calmly and directly, exactly when it's needed. Obviously, I haven't learned enough from this teacher. I'm still the loud one, the one with too many opinions, but I'm still studying their wisdom and taking lots of notes. I know a master teacher and friend when I see one. This teacher remains the sanest, kindest, steadiest, most decent of all my colleagues and I work with heroes. They have a way about them that we all watch and measure ourselves against. They manage to have the highest standards and the most uncompromising compassion. Over the years, thousands of students have learned to write in this teacher's classroom, but far more importantly, they have practiced caring about a perspective not their own. This teacher is the colleague everyone wishes they had and I'm lucky enough to have been in a department with them for more than 20 years. Thank you for your patience, your eternal decency and your kindness and thanks for putting up with those of us who still have much to learn. We are always going to be running to catch up. Finally, Mr. Chaito wrote, this teacher has been a great friend and colleague for over 20 years. What a great person to honor with a yearbook dedication. This teacher is an MHS treasure. In the early days, we coach soccer together, and now we go to see movies that neither of our wives would like to see. We have gone on long bike rides and during non-corona years shared lunch together. When you walk into this teacher's classroom, you will notice their daily agenda. They are prepared, prepared to help teens take on literary criticism or take on the analysis of cinematic classics. This teacher is prepared with their tool belt of writing and editing implements. On the topic of being prepared, this teacher has always been this way. Once early on in their career, a custodian mistook this teacher for a student and denied this teacher entry before school hours. But I am a teacher, they argued. I would go further and say, yes, they are a teacher, a great teacher, a Teach for America trained and national board certified teacher. So with that, we are happy to announce the 2020-2021 yearbook dedication to a student, to a teacher that some students simply describe as a really cool dude. Dan Miller Arsenault. All those words were far too kind, really humbling. I think you all know how much I care for you. We did a lot of laughing, a lot of the time, or at least I did. And you're just, you're a really special group. I love this place. I love all of you. I love my colleagues and really, really humbled. So thank you all very, very much. Hard to follow that up, but I also just really want to quickly thank both Evan and Megan for their hard, hard work on the yearbook. Without them, we would not have a yearbook here to hand out to all of you. So thank you very much to both of them. Today's ceremony, if you ordered a copy of the yearbook, we have them all over on the side here. So you can pick that up and see that lovely dedication to Dan within that yearbook in there. So I'll see you all at the end of the ceremony. All right, next we are going to recognize the Class of 2021 Valedictory Group. When I call your name, please come up. And if you're just going to stand here until we recognize all of you. Mae Browning, Ruby Bryant, Daniel F. Burns, Sadie Chase Tacko, Thoschia T. Cousins Joyce, Irene Diaz Perez, Gregory Thomas Galanca, Aaron Stetler Kelly, Megan G. Krusman, Lucia D. McCallum, Tobias Quinn Mills, Eliana B. Moorhead, Mary Margaret Page, Maple Sky Parchlik, Luna Pompey, N.W. Rohan, Neil Christopher Rohan, Eve Alexandra Taylor, Althea Hope, Ian Torrens Martin, and Claire A. Veneziano. This group over their four years here at MHS have earned a 3.9 GPA or higher in their entirety. So let's give this Valedictory Group one last round of applause. Congratulations. I'm now gonna introduce Nora Chase Tacko and Ella Darcy who are going to award the Peter A. Clark Award for excellence. The Peter A. Clark Award recognizes one MHS individual each year who exemplifies excellence in education. The recipient of this award is determined by student council and former recipients of this award include Karen McAdden, Michael McGrath, and Whitney McMacknack. Each year, student council looks through the list of teachers at MHS and through a long and thoughtful process selects one individual. This year it was especially difficult as there are many teachers that did an extraordinary job teaching under the less than ideal circumstances. After much deliberation, student council has chosen one teacher in particular who not only brought an astounding amount of joy and excitement to the students in her classes and programs but to the school as a whole. We want to recognize this teacher's persistent and uplifting kindness, support, and patience while navigating this difficult year. Every day she pushed her students to take risks, be more comfortable in themselves, and explore new ideas. She has brought so much happiness and so many opportunities to the MHS community. So please join us in congratulating Keanna Bromley as the 2020-2021 recipient of the Peter A. Clark Award. I just wanted to say thank you. Just thank you. Yeah, I was like listening. I was like, oh, that sounds so lovely. And then she said my name and I was like, oh my God. So thank you very, very much. That's very humbling. Thank you. Okay, now onto the student awards. We have Keanna back up to the mic with Flanny and Liz Swindell from A Distance to present the Art and Theater Department Awards. Okay, so I'm here to present the theater awards and I'm very excited to do so. We had a really interesting and fabulous year. And today I have the joy of presenting these two awards in excellence in theater. The seniors receiving these awards have dedicated themselves time and again to the Mask Theater Program here at MHS. They have poured their hearts into our productions, made excellent friends, and have become incredibly important members of our family. For technical theater, I am honored to highlight the work of a particularly important part of a theater family. Our beloved stage manager, Oscar Newburger, of a production is honestly the hardest. Not only did Oscar have to deal with me constantly, but he also had to constantly be a leader to his peers and manage complex logistics for months on end. His commitment, work ethic, and sense of humor will be missed tremendously. Congratulations, Oscar. I want to highlight the beautiful work of the talented Jaden Jageman. What an incredible voice Jaden has and how captivating she is while on stage. But what I've most enjoyed is her commitment to character development. From day one, she has devoted herself to doing the true creative work of an actor. She takes pride in what she performs and works hard to polish her work. She is constantly working to better her craft and I cannot wait to see what comes next in her journey. Congratulations, Jaden. I didn't have the opportunity to teach any of you, unfortunately. So we brought Liz in from afar and here she is to present the Hot Dog Artist Award. We're here at the M.H.S. Art Department as awarded the Barb Austin Actions Hot Dog Award to a senior artist who has shown great passion, creativity, enthusiasm, and growth in their art team during their time at Hawkeye Art School. This year it is privileged to award the Hot Dog Artist Award to an authentic figure who has taken creative risks, explored a range of ideas, and has an obvious love for our meeting. Please join me in congratulating this year's recipient, Alfie M. Howard. Present the Social Studies Award, Perry Bellow Handleman. So, I didn't get the pleasure to work with you at M.H.S. this year, so I'm reading this on behalf of your teachers, Mr. Chater and Mr. Tilliston. So, from Mr. Chater. The Social Studies Department would like to recognize the work and contributions of Savvy Winston. Savvy's ability to express the bigger picture of questions and to truly engage in a sense of social justice stood out to members of our department. It might just be Savvy's reactions to jokes shared by Mr. Chater and Mr. Tilliston, but much more likely her work ethic and determination to change the world in some small way that drew our attention to recognize her today. Congratulations, Savvy, and for Mr. Tilliston. There are many things I'll remember about this student. Among them, the image of her sitting without fail in the last seat of the first row, right beneath the southeast corner of the U.S. map, always huddled over her desk, vigorously taking notes. At least I think she was taking notes. I never looked over her shoulder. This student was consistently responsible, hardworking student in AP U.S. history. She took great interest in the many social movements that improved the lives for Americans throughout our history, learned the value of lunchtime collaborations to review material before quizzes, and developed an awareness of the parallels that exist across disciplines. Congratulations, Althea, and always keep up the good work. Next to present the Music Department Awards, Kirk Kreitz. The Excellence in Music Award is presented to a student who demonstrates an outstanding level of performance and musical leadership. The Excellence in the Discipline of Music Award for jazz goes to Evan Rohan. Excellence in Choir is awarded to Daniel Jarvis. Also, Excellence in Choir is also awarded to Mary Margaret Page. And lastly, we have the Directors Award. The Directors Award is presented to a student whose enthusiasm and work ethic have led to personal growth and musical accomplishments. And that award goes to Jaden Jegeman. To present the Math Department Awards, Whitney Magnick and Mariah Hostetter. We are so happy to be here with you all today and honored to present the Math Awards to you all. This award is given to seniors who exhibit both excellence and enthusiasm in their approach to mathematics. Each student has taken a variety of classes within our department and has not only excelled, but has made that class much better with their thoughtful discussion, their questioning, and their enthusiasm. And the three awards are Erin Kelly, Evan Rohan, and Claire Veneziano. And here to present the English Department Awards, Sarah Squire. So I'm sitting in my classroom the other day and somebody blasts into the room, blasts in and says, hey, I hear you're giving out awards. I should get one. Leo. And I said, did you love English class? Well, was it like your favorite thing? Did you ever forget about like where you were and just kind of go crazy? I said, okay, all right, back up. So the two people who are getting this award did that all the time. They kind of climbed out of their skin with excitement about an idea. They were brave. They asked questions they didn't know the answers to, which I think is the mark of super brave. There are lots and lots and lots of people who could get this award, but when the English Department put our heads together, we all agreed that we just love these two without measure and they exemplify what it means to be an excited student of literature and language. Sharon Boteng and Sadie Smith. And next to present the sustainability, award is Tom Sabo. Eliana, can you, can you come up here? Come on. She's not getting the award, but she's gonna help me present it. Because she is like my favorite announcer in the history of this school. I don't know if you guys remember a couple of years ago, Breck and you may remember this. In TA, Breck, when announcements would come and I'd be like, here comes Eliana and she would deliver, she'd deliver those announcements in that way she only can. So then we made her MC of the Fall Harbor Celebration. Remember that? That was good. So I'm just trying to rekindle some of the great memories that I've had with all of you before you leave. But I am here to describe the sustainability award which Eliana will then go and give. This is totally unprepared. Do you know how to pronounce that? Yeah. So the sustainability award actually is kind of special and that we don't always give it. I haven't given it in many years actually. We've given it to teachers, we've given it to community members. That's kind of a rare thing. We've given it to students. And in essence, I know you've all learned all about sustainability. If you really want to boil it down, someone from the street asks what's it about and it's like, you know, who's made this community a better place? And part of the reason we don't give it all the time is it's very difficult in part because so many, so many of you do all the time and that's what makes this a special place. So to, you know, bring back the award and the circulation, you kind of gotta go above and beyond. You know, you have to work kind of continuously, you know, not just for this community, for this place here and now, but for the generations to come. And the student who's receiving it this year has done just that. She has worked on social and racial justice issues. She's worked on environmental issues, the climate crisis, tons of work on food security. I mean, it's really been impressive and this is well-earned. And now I'm gonna let Eliana read this year's recipient of the MHS Earth Group Sustainability Award. The award goes to the amazing Aaron Kelly. That was such a perfect award. Hey, you knew who's done. This is your award? You're the Eliana girl. Oh, okay. You present it too, here, you present it. On behalf of Marika Russo, Matt McLean is going to present the Debate Award. Each year, the National Speed and Debate Association Iroquois District has the opportunity to name a district student of the year, presented to a graduating senior who best exemplifies and represents the tenets of the Association's Code of Honor, humility, equity, integrity, respect, leadership, and service. Nominees must also demonstrate strong academic credentials and a commitment to speak to the speech and debate community. This year, for the first time, a Montpillar High School student is receiving this award, and that student is Neil Rohan. I'll also be presenting, additionally, Neil has qualified for the fourth year in a row for the National Debate Tournament, for the National Debate Tournament, public forum debate tournament, which happens next week, and also be receiving that award as well. Congratulations, Neil. Next to present the flexible pathways, recognitions, Steph Delana and Bill Laila. Hi, everybody. So I was going to say, because I have my notes right here, I was going to say, oh gosh, what a group, you're looking great. However, I don't have my glasses and the lights are bad in here, so I don't know how you're looking, but it's so nice to see you all in blurry form. No, no, Bill offered me his glasses, but they're for reading and your distance, so that wouldn't be helpful. Truly though, it is really nice to be back in the building. I've missed you all this year. I hope you've had a great year under these really challenging circumstances. I do wanna congratulate you on your accomplishments. So Bill and I are here representing the flexible pathways team, and as I prepared today, I thought a lot about you, the class of 2021, and I also thought a lot about flexible pathways. It's been evolutionary for both. When I came to the high school, you were in sixth grade, and so if you think about that, the number of years, the flexible pathways program has exploded exponentially since that time. I missed you in sixth grade. It's been a gift to get to know many of you here at the high school over the last four years. Gotta flip my notes. So the first year I was here, I had six students in the flexible pathways program that's separate from the robust CBL program that existed. The second year, I had 12. By the time your sneakers hit our campus, our numbers had risen not like this for you math people on a line graph, but like this. Montpelier's commitment to act 77, proficiencies, personalization, civic engagement, post-secondary readiness has been the envy of school statewide. I say that with both pride, but also I say that with appreciation for the administration's commitment to flexible pathways. It could not have happened without their commitment to your learning in a personalized way. I'd like you to take a moment to give a round of applause to these colleagues and to our administration who are currently and who also have historically supported CBL's personalized learning, online learning, the Career Center in Barrie, dual enrollment and early college. Please give my colleagues in the administration a round of applause. The Flexible Pathways Award recognizes students who have taken clear steps to personalize their education by seeking out and engaging in a variety of high school learning experiences that align with their interests, curiosities, growing skills and future aspirations. The award recognizes students who have taken the time to reflect on themselves as learners and young adults and have engaged in meaningful activities that honor these reflections and promote their aspirations. The Flexible Pathways team feels strongly that this award is too difficult to present to any one student or even several students. Given its very nature, how could we determine a hierarchy of student achievement? One Flexible Pathways student may have successfully completed early college under extremely difficult circumstances. Another perhaps chose early college with trepidation and made the Dean's List or President's List two semesters in a row. Other Flexible Pathways students took dual enrollment courses, American Sign Language, Art, Anatomy and Physiology, Statistics, Business. The list goes on and on and the learning has been significant. Can we rank one community-based learning experience over another? Working with the police department or Vermont Democrats, learning about athletic training, involvement with the geriatric or pre-K populations. It is not for the Flexible Pathways team to determine who is awarded for learning that is personal, relevant and meaningful. We also have students engaged in the Central Vermont Career Center programs, career and technical education that leads to wonderful post-secondary opportunities, education, training and high demand employment. This is all to say that the Flexible Pathways team celebrates and recognizes every student in this graduating class who journeyed down their unique path, earning PE credits for mountain biking, learning about how Vermont can provide free lunches to all students in the future or working to become a licensed nurse practitioner. Online learning, personalized learning studies, career center programs, college courses, we celebrate you all. To get a better perspective about the number of Flexible Pathways seniors, participants, we ask that you stand if you've participated in, it's you Bill. Please stand to be recognized if you participated in the following Flexible Pathways experiences at MHS, community-based learning, completed coursework at Central Vermont Career Center, a personalized learning study, Personalized learning studies, stand up if you did, online learning course, Online learning, an extended learning opportunity or an ELL, taken the introduction to college careers class at CCV, enrolled in a dual enrollment college course, or enrolled in early college. To all of you, please continue to pursue your passions, dive into your curiosities, and seek out ways towards your successes. You all rock, good job. Keep up the great work in the future everybody, best wishes to you all. He's gonna present the Athletic Achievement Award. Here to present some of the athletic awards for the season. First up, an accomplishment that was already done and he knows about it, but at our boys basketball championship game, Leo Ravi Williams was just shy of 1,000 points for his career, and he was able to accomplish that feat during the game, and we have the ball to present to him now. So Leo, come on up. The next awards accomplishments that we have will be the, I'm gonna present two awards to two student athletes who played all 12 seasons that they could. Obviously we've lost one season last spring, but since they played this year as well and before, we know what they would have played. So this award is for the 12 season athlete award. It's very important with it being a somewhat smaller school that we have kids who are dedicated to each and every single season. And playing one sport is hard enough so to play 12 straight seasons while in high school is a pretty big accomplishment that deserves to be recognized for sure. So those two student athletes that we have were Marshall Donahue and Bobby Cody. And now I will present the award for the two most outstanding senior athletes. This award goes to the senior athletes that have gone above and beyond while playing athletics here at the school. They are the athletes that we hope every one of the underclassmen become. In order to win this award, athletes need to show an immense amount of commitment, dedication, respect, and leadership during their time here. And not only have these two done that, they had done so across numerous sports that span multiple seasons. And to pull back the curtain a little bit, the way you get considered for this award is that the nominees have to be nominated by their coach in one of the seasons. So one of our nominees was nominated for each of the three sports that she was on this season by her coach, which tells you a lot about who she is as an athlete and a leader. And the other is as great a person as he is an athlete and someone who came up clutch in the biggest moments of the season for each team that he was on. The winners this year, the most outstanding senior athlete are Mary Margaret Page and Leo Rybie Williams. And to round out our award ceremony, I'm going to invite Luke Brassard up to give the senior class gift. So this year's senior class gift is a $500 donation for the purchase of furniture to be used in the main community spaces at MHS. The furniture will help to provide community spaces for people to gather and enjoy each other's company. I guess we'll have to come back to school at some point to enjoy it. Congratulations to every recipient of an award today. As I shared before, when we meet together again on Friday, it will be an opportunity to honor each of you as you walk across the stage and finish this chapter and head to your next chapter. I want to welcome anybody who purchased a yearbook to be able to come up to the front. We will see each other on Friday at 10.45 for your graduation rehearsal. Thank you, everyone.