001According to [Music] [ __ ] north by the way. for two and a half hours. [Music] Good morning and welcome to academic award. Today we come together to recognize the hard work, dedication and achievements of our fellow students, our teachers, staff. Thank you for your constant support and encouragement. Your guidance has helped us reach new. Thank you. And I'll turn it over to Mr. [Applause] Thanks. Council [Music] President. Okay. So, here's what's going on. Obviously, most of you, even you freshman have been through this, right, with the middle school academic awards. So, this is probably going to take and oh, by the way, before we even begin, I don't know how many know, but we are live streaming this right now. So, it is it is live. YouTube. We're live streaming on YouTube, so you can watch
002it back. you want to see yourself come up and get a reward, you can watch it back. All right, record. So, having said that, right, this is being recorded. It is takes a while, right? This is going to take over an hour. Uh, and it varies. Some years we get through here fairly quickly and and you got plenty of time for lunch. Other times it runs a little long. It depends how much your teachers have to say, right? and the good things that they have to say about so we'll do this about an hour and a half we'll finish with our student of the month assembly basically for the month of May right that will be the very end and then at that time then we'll get to lunch all right so just talking to
003a couple teachers they said that they really enjoyed this day and this program and that's you know we wanted all of our seniors here as we get to this point everybody not just the seniors but If we get to this point, it's like, okay, you know where the end of the road is. You know what day is your technically your last day of school. So, for the last two weeks, we kind of been prepping for that by doing as little as possible, right? But, uh, we wanted our seniors here today. A lot of our seniors are like, do I have to come today? And if you notice, the majority of them, I think if not all, are here, right? and the majority of probably want other things to do. But it's important that they're here
004because this that they represent right the end of this journey. And like we said at the beginning of the year, we go as they go. Our culture is what you all bring to the table. But again, we like to say it's the culture of our seniors. And that culture changes, right? Our culture of our school will be different next year as we have a new group of seniors, right? And then again, the culture changes. And so really, you know, they set the tone. And so on behalf of the staff and the school, we just want to say thank you to the seniors. We've done a lot of great things, some average things, maybe some not so good things over the years, but we thank you number one for being our students. That matters. You are
005our students. And some of you live literally a two-minute walk from school. But some of you live 50 minutes from school and still been here enough, right, to finish the journey. You've gotten here, right? In this day and age, it is choice. There's a lot of things, a lot of ways that you can prepare yourself for what you're going to do, right? The floodgates are open on open enrollment. You know, homeschooling is an option. We talked at the beginning of the year how high school really matters probably more right now than any time in in history really because of what's happening in the world. Remember that speech at the beginning of the year, Cole? Kind of, right? Because we talked about how employers now, right? Employers now that old method of graduating from high school
006and then going on some credentialed program like a bachelor's degree or an associates degree or some kind of training that is largely more and more and more going by the wayside. And a lot of employers are now looking at, you know, forget a bachelor's degree. Do you have the skills as an 18, 19 year old to do what we're looking for? What happened to you guys often times is you look at school as it doesn't prepare me for a job. It's not teaching me how to be a great welder. or it's not teaching me to take and be licensed as a plumber or it's not teaching me to be a computer programmer. So therefore, it's a waste of time, right? Just teach me how to do a job. That works if your country's population is
00730 million, 15 million. I mean, that works if this is Germany, right? But in a country that's almost 380 million. Are we 380 million? In a country of this size, that doesn't work. Okay? Because you can't take Aiden Mosley and say, "Okay, Aiden, you're 13 years old, 14 years old, just kind of looking at you and things that you bring to the table. You're going to be a plumber." And so now for the next four years, you're going to work on just being a plumber. And then when you're 18, that's just going to be your job until you are 70. You're going to be a plumber. But in the United States, you can't necessarily do that. So these soft skills, right, are super important. Learning these soft skills are super important. How to adapt? And
008so today we're celebrating, you know, students that have, you know, maybe it's their niche in the classroom. You know, maybe they they are, you know, their niche is mathematics or their or their niche is welding or whatever it is. Some of you will get rep represented for being at the top of that, right? But some of you won't walk down here. But you seniors, you represent some of those soft skills. Bryson, did you want to be here today? No, but you're here. All right, Hunter, did you want to be here today? No, but you're here. And I tell you what, right there, right, the soft skill is, can you show up? Are you dependable? Can you show up when you don't want to? So, here we're going to recognize the the want to, the good
009things. But the reason why we want our seniors here today is because you represent doing the things when you don't want to do them. And if you're looking for a soft skill, I mean, if you're looking for something to hang your hat on as an adult, I really think that's it, right? How good are you at doing the things you don't want to do in anything? Let's say you're a big fan of MMA fighting. Okay, maybe you're a big fan. I don't know. Those guys to get to the level where they can make a living doing that. If you think about that, they're not genetically gifted and therefore they fell into that. They're there because they did. They showed up and they did all the things they didn't want to do. The 5:00 a.m. training,
010the mile running, right? All that physical conditioning. Getting off the couch and doing that is what makes the difference. I would imagine that 99% of you today didn't want to get out of bed, don't want to get off the couch, but you do. So that's the first thing that we applaud you on today. Whether you come down to the floor today or not, right? There's two things. We thank you for being ours, right? We thank you for being our students. And secondly, we applaud you for doing some of the things that you don't want to do, right? And that happens a lot. But that's not going to go away. That's never going to go away. Even if you have a job that you absolutely love doing, there's going to be days, I don't want to
011go. I don't want to do that. Right? And so that ability to do those things and to do the things you don't want to do really kind of separates out as an adult because that's where you really start to fall along the wayside is when you start giving into that temptation. Yep. I don't want to do that so therefore I'm not going to do it. I don't want to work so therefore I'm not going to right. I can't deal with the stress. And so therefore, I'm not going to deal with the stress. And I'm going to find some way to try to just kind of push the stress aside and pick up some bad habits and fall a victim to those bad habits, right? And you've all experienced that. Some of you, some of you
012have a cakewalk. Some of you have a great supportive family that outlines everything. you you see that there's really no choice for me to not go to college or there's really no choice for me to not do this, right? And many of you, you're not many, some of you, you're already doing that by yourself. Some of you have parents that have just said, "Hey, you're 15, you're 16. It's on you." There's a few of you that are like that. and here you are and you show up and that's a great soft skill to have. So seniors, you know, thank you for being here because we wanted you to be here because you represent all of those days that you didn't want to do it and so for whatever reasons you did, right? Just like Bo
013doesn't want to write his graduation speech and share it with us, but he will, right? He'll do those things. I'm not very excited. When we're done here, I believe Mr. Bey wants to take photos of the group and so we'll do it in front of the home of the warriors. Just kind of shuttle through. Teachers uh you know, we'll try to go by what's on the on the awards program, but we'll have to be flexible as people get pulled other duties and things like that. So again, thank you. Uh be a good audience today. Like I said, we're live streaming and we will begin our program with Miss Thomas and her art award. Good job. All right, you guys give yourselves a round of applause. Getting through the years. Today, I would like to recognize
014students who have challenged themselves and shown consistent improvement in their techniques and art design throughout the year. So, please come forward. Olivia Sigmer, Riley Simmons, Cammy Fage, Danny Martin, Rosario Navaro, Sammy, Alexis, Brown and you Guys, [Music] That's the guy will be handing off awards for ensemble. from this room myself. Jay's going to stay here for just a second because Jay actually got to go to state ensemble with For the band awards, I want to recognize uh three people who've been very very dedicated to the program and very talented musicians. And it would be really difficult to do what we do without Maya Mills, Currunner, and Leo. [Applause] I wrote down so I didn't crazy. All right. Good morning everyone. How are we doing? Good. Oh my gosh. Let's try that again. Good morning everyone.
015How are we doing? We love today. All right. So, Mr. and Ann and I could not run the musical without the strong leadership and passion from our students. So, if you were involved in the musical, please stand so we can applaud you. As a teacher, we like to recognize all of the individuals for their leadership on and off the stage. Getting on stage is an act of bravery. Showing your design is an act of bravery, and for that, we cannot praise you enough. This year, the leadership and design award for Freaky Friday's set design goes to Isaac. [Applause] And our leadership in performance award goes to Jersey. [Applause] Come on, guys. Yeah. All right. So, the first award is the business lead the future award. This is for intro to business and technology students that
016have the highest most achievement over the course of semester. Uh so those go to Max Fox and Mason Schultz. [Applause] Uh next award is for those that competed at the mini business world event at CISA 3 in October. Uh those were Trevor [Music] Liddellum, Gary Baker and Jackson. Congratulations. [Applause] All right, the next awards go to the students that compete at J Titan in March up in Madison. um a student of the first year competing. We finished top 10 of the 36 teams over there. Um so it's pretty good performance there uh for us up at Madison. Uh so that would be Dave Beckerman, Javation. [Applause] Uh the next award is for entrepreneurship or students uh for leadership in entrepreneurship class. Uh these two really took upon themselves to uh start up the school store
017and run it and operate it. Uh so this goes to Sigler and Riley. Our next award is for uh our seniors who can beat the stock market game. Uh so I compiled the top scores through both semesters and we end up top 20. Those team was the one that had the highest score throughout the individual had the highest score throughout. Uh they are Molly Edler, Haley Wellness, James Holland, Richie Hagen, [Applause] and Congratulations. The last uh class award goes to the editor and that goes to your product. [Applause] Uh lastly, FPLA awards. Um every year we recognize the seniors uh who took part in FA at some point in high school career. This year we have three seniors who u earlier this year. Haley Wellness, Maggie Lang, and Malia. [Applause] Um in April uh we
018compete at state future conference. Uh state sent us their certificates for this year. Uh, so receiving third place and going to nationals this year are Molly Edler and JC Thomas in the American Enterprise Project. Uh, then we also have the qualifiers uh, who just missed out on the state or going to nationals. Reese Smith was state qualifier computer game and simulation programming. And then Olivia Seager, Pier Brunner, and Payton Ste was state qualifiers and community service. [Applause] lastly, they're right down there. Um, uh, I just mentioned two of them went are going to nationals in June this year in Anaheim, California. Those are JCS and all the other. And then at the state convention, Molly received the outstanding FPLA member for our [Applause] check. Good morning students. My name is Lori. Um I use it
019my AI assistant help students and uh students that go above and beyond. So today I'd like to take a moment to recognize two students have gone above and beyond. These are individuals who didn't shy away from difficult paths. They chose projects that were ambitious, complex, and often uncertain. But through persistence and destructive purpose, they brought their ideas to life. Their work wasn't just about meeting deadlines. It was about pushing limits, solving real problems, and refusing to settle for just enough. Uh these students showed us what it meant to be resilient, innovative, and committed. Uh let their journey be a reminder to all of us, growth doesn't happen in comfort zones. It happens when we challenge ourselves to embrace failure as part of the process and keep going anyway. So those two students would be Madison
020Lang and Jake Price. [Applause] [Music] Congratulations All right, boys. You showed up. You didn't have to be seniors on your account. Make it worth it. So, Bryson and others, whoever, and stay focused because this day is yours. This is not my day. had 34 years of this. This is your day. So I am and by the way I'm looking forward to watching this tonight on YouTube. Okay. So I enjoy I get to say I won't get to see the end. And I do congratulate all of you on your awards and most importantly thank you to the seniors. You did have very good leadership this year. I respect you. It was another great year to be a warrior. So, seniors, stand up. Please give [Applause] them. I will miss you seniors. I wouldn't change a thing
021except for one thing, Sephy. I'd only change one. I'd play a different infantry in round one in the football playoffs. I'd have a different opponent. Otherwise, nothing else. All right. So, I am giving up my physical education awards. This is for uh demonstrating leadership and a positive attitude on a consistent basis in my class. Audience, if you would please hold your attendance until all students have received their awards. Students, when you come down, please to shake Miss Will's hand because she's going to be handing out the awards for me. The first award is going to go to Dax Pacquin. The second award is going to Jay Scott. Haley Wellness, Alexis Ste, Justin Patton, Olivia Signner, Riley Simons, Kate Picket, Brandon [Music] McCoy, you Danny Martin Golden Hall and last but not least, Manny [Applause] Place.
022Next up to present is Mr. Kenny with Spanish come down Evans. As I'm handing these out, I always want to say the same thing. When I get one out, there's there's like two or three people that are just like percentage points away from it. I always I want you to know um it's it's a lot of work and I I recommend that you do that every day and you have to crank out all that stuff that I actually do. Okay. Uh so we'll go on. We have done these things come down in place. We'll start with Riley Corley, please. Kira Brunner and Ros. So, it's a lot it's a lot of work. [Applause] though I like to go golfing. I'm not carrying golf clubs, but I am doing Mr. O'Brien's social studies award. So here
023are the awards for uh social studies. I can't comment on one thing but in geography we have Mason Schultz now and it looks like world history uh JCS Maline Place and Samantha Fresher US history dealers. Thank you. Senior civics Boes, Molly Edler, and Eli. And in sociology, Emily and Olivia. [Applause] Then we turn our attention to science. First the Albert Einstein Award in physical science goes to Mason Schultz highly sad and revolution getting awards for the first ball in biology. ology. The David Atenburgh award goes to Danny Martin. The Coyote Peterson Award goes to Cole Dunl. And the Jonathan Bird Award goes to Jersey Beagle. [Applause] And awards in chemistry. First of all, the Antoine Demoisier Award goes to Taylor Seagal. The Marie Cury Award goes to Maya Mills. The Neil Por award goes to
024Kira Runner. And the Demetri Mendelv award goes to Olivia Roomer. Congratulations. And lastly in the anatomy and physiology category, the girl who wouldn't pass out, Emily McCoy. She made it through uh dissecting the pig fairly but also held the brain held the heart and commented positively student class. The technical front of the award goes to young men. [Applause] And I will turn it over to Matthew. Did you say you're going to start your week? Good. Um, so Mr. Mills talked about things. Um, you guys doing things that you didn't really want to do, but you do it anyway because you're supposed to, right? Um, doing the hard things. Um, for me, that is standing up here in front of you guys. I am not comfortable with public speaking, but I do it for you to
025recognize you guys today. So, um I'm kind of stepping out of out of my comfort zone as well. But, um I'm obviously here to present the math awards and high school math uh plays a critical role in building problem solving and logical thinking skills that are essential for success in academics and well beyond. We talk about that all the time. So, our curriculum from algebra degree uh to pre-calculate is not only rigorous and foundational but requires a strong focus. We know that persistence which was one of our words for this year and confidence was the other one and a willingness to tackle the complex challenges. Mastery of these subjects lays the groundwork for advanced studies not only in science, technology, engineering but also of course mathematics. Congratulations to these top performers in the classes of
026algebra, geometry, algebra 2, and pre-calculus. Your hard work and achievement truly stand out. Keep pushing forward. Your dedication set the powerful example uh for others. And you know, again, doing things you don't want to do. Thank you all for doing the math that you didn't want to do on a daily basis. So, thank you guys for that. And one more thing, I have to give a shout out to um my first period geometry class. Can't say that they're my favorite class because I don't have favorites. However, the fact that they get up in the morning and do something that they don't want to do in hour one uh and do it um in a way that makes us Mr. Do and I smile uh is good. So anyway, here are are our uh awards for
027math in algebra. Um our top high school performer, and I'm only giving for this because we have uh top top performers uh from the eighth grade class as well. But our top high school performer is Michaela Curran. And Michaela, will you just stay up here and stand until all of the math awards get um given [Applause] up for geometry. Um, I should also give a shout out to the people that think that there is a common sense theorem, right? We've made that this year. Uh, but anyway, uh, the top three performers, I think I have three performers here. Uh, the top three performers for the entire year for geometry are Reese Smith, Mason Schulz, and Danny Martin. [Applause] But I also gave an additional award out. Um Sammy Pressure hasn't been here all year, but
028she's done an excellent job um in the one semester that she has been. So Sammy Pressure gets our additional [Applause] Now moving on to our algebra 2. Um our top performers in algebra 2, which is not an easy class. And I know that um uh these students had headaches. Not just these that I'm listing, but all of them had headaches all year long because I expected a lot from this group of kids. So, uh, like it said before, keep pushing forward, uh, and and keep keep, uh, you know, doing your math and working hard because, uh, it could pay off someday. Hopefully, it does. The top performers are Jason Cas, Alexis Deetsz, and Jersey We [Applause] And our final academic math awards go to our precel students. I don't have many um pre-calp students and
029I hope that that changes uh in the future, but um I couldn't I couldn't break it down to saying um one student or three students um should have gotten awards and two didn't. I'm just happy that they're there and they're wanting to continue to learn mathematics. In fact, today uh we actually got into some calculus and I know that they loved it. So, I know that they'll be taking calculus next year and and I'm super excited about that. My five pre-cal students are uh Olivia Rutiger, Maddie Place, Maya Mills, Kira Brunner, and [Applause] Taylor. Keep up the good work. Thank you. And now according to what I have are English awards with Mr. Peditine and Mrs. Signner. Hey Morning this time. Can you hear me? This is good morning. Hey, Brenda will be down in
030as I said, but uh what I was looking for at least I didn't look at GPA or anything like that. I looked for the students who showed some creativity, some depth of thought and some resiliency in uh reading and writing and things that don't always come easy. So this is uh more in terms of comprehensive rather than directly completed. I have had all of you in class at one time and the other. So there is no net reward this year. So for the freshman two students who stood out for me with their with their depth of thought and their creativity and Mason Shel. for our sophomores. Um, two students who who uh thought things through, tried hard, impressed me with their insights. Danny Mark and Cole D. [Applause] Thanks. So, the juniors, if I already
031given you one, uh, let me know and I'll kick it back. But, uh, I have lost my freshman year results, but it's still these are students who do well for me. Um, Mr. Mill's talked about this. I'll talk about a little more. 90% of the bike is showing up. Um, and these are students who showed up every day. um had some insight, had some creativity and yeah, so Emily think and Olivia [Applause] say and so speaking of showing up um I started teaching honors English this year and it's been five six years so none of you had um a senior last year say what's that class about buddy and so it was unknown and yet you showed up. So like this I'm not going to pick one of the four and it's not just that
032I you know everybody gets a trophy date. It's that all four of these people came and did things at a high level. They read the medieval literature. They talked about poetry. They wrote kind essays often times and they probably didn't want to. So again they were there and they excelled. So, would my health class come on down and get your awards? Maddie, Olivia, Owen, and Bo. Nice job, Daddy. And they didn't give [Applause] up. We were doing things this morning and they were doing them well. Good job. So, grateful here. In the meantime, I'm going to complain about things that you did badly [Music] that Mr. Mr. All right. So, source of strength is a school of black. We believe in focusing other strengths to support growth and perseverance. Each year, teachers nominate students who
033show leadership in their social groups, advocate for well-being overall, and demonstrate a strong ability to connect others together and build each other up. These students are invited to source and strength cheerleader training and developing a schoolwide campaign that uh to showcase all of our students strengths. Before I recognize this year's peer leader team, I'm going to take a moment to recognize the cheerleaders who attended the training last year. uh which are Katie Picket, Kira Runner, Maya, Jordan Baker, Landon Foster, and before you walk away, I'm going to give out this year's awards as well. And our peer theater team for this year was Jordan Baker, Jamie Scott, Paige, Danny Martin, and Reese. [Applause] Good morning. Um, congratulations first of all seniors. Um, I have a little comment about this class and about any senior class
034that is always interesting to see and I'm sure anybody who teaches seniors can um, agree with me or attest to this is that it's fun to see the differences in senior itis um, kick in to classes. Sometimes I will get senioritis day one a couple years ago that we had a class that was like that. Um sometimes we're waiting till the last month for senioritis which is great. Um except for when those the longer we wait the harder we fall. So thank you seniors for um at least waiting until um the last couple weeks of May and um but but overall thank you for being a great class this year. Uh I'm going to start with my singular notes first. And as some of you may know obviously I teach a transcription credit dual credit
035course. The first semester was oral communications. Um if you are entering any tech school any program in a tech school um one or two years this course you require um so it's in your best interest to take it. And with that right we always think about students think like when am I ever going to use this again? you are always going to be using your communication skills, right? Anytime you open your mouth, anytime you write something down, um you are being evaluated and judged. So, um always keep that in mind if you ever think when am I going to use this again? So, starting with the first semester, which was oral and interpersonal communication, uh this is basically uh or this is based on just overall straight A's um achievement. So, I had three students
036who got a straight A's despite their busy schedules. Um, they are Melissa Broy, Molly Heather, and Riley Simmons. And for communication, when that senior started to kick in, I do have one um award winner. again about straight A despite the busy schedule that this young lady does have and that is the moving [Applause] club. Uh now I could move on to forensics. Um this year's forensics team I recruited one more from last year. So again I think I've got some promises from some of your students. So I hopefully you will follow through. Um I'm going to call the team up here by certificates of participation and then um as some of you may know we have a state competition and I have a little achievements. So, um, in no special order, can I have standing
037pressure? Alissa Broie, Mason Schulz, JC, Molly Eckler, Katie Speeds, Kira Runner, Maya Mills, Olivia, and I give this group a nice round of [Applause] applause. It's not easy to do, but they make it look easy. Um, advancing to the state competition. Um, I had I believe it was eight of them up here. Um, and to qualify for that, you have to score qualifying scores at a subdist and then a district contest. And then at the state, you get to speak one time and you uh get either a gold um a silver or a bronze or a what's called a baby bronze. Okay. And so um we had uh various levels here, but I'm going to start with my bronze first and that goes to Mason Schulz in improving speaking. silvers. I have JC Cavis and
038Molly in [Applause] history and Maggie plays in public address. And scoring goals for the team this year was a threeperson group interpretive reading. Some of you may have that back to see them practice or at least maybe they perform for your class. No, I can't do that. I should make them perform right now. That's what I should do. You guys want me right now? Go for eight seats here in Miami. [Applause] And I have one extra I just wanted to talk to you about Kira here. Um, double enters which is something that you can which is something you can do in forensics and this is her second year of doing that. Um so not only did she earn a gold in her group, she also earned a silver in um expository. So congratulations for [Applause]
039extra. Thank you. Okay. So, I am up here first of all for to recognize student council members uh this year. I don't have your certificates. I think they're with my um middle school track. So, anyway, I'll get your certificates to you. They're done. I didn't put a lot of work into them. I just don't have them down here right now. Uh but anyway, first people I would like to recognize are your student council officers because they did a wonderful job for us this year. So, uh President Haley Will you come up? VP Kira Secretary Molly and Treasure Taylor. Um, I just again I want to thank these young ladies because they do such a lot of work for us. Our student council and especially these officers whether you know it or not are an invaluable
040part of our school community uh consisting of going above and beyond to serve their peers. They bring fresh, creative ideas, whether it's planning events, improving school spirit, starting new initiatives, or just giving their time behind the scenes to make all of your voices heard and uh coming to the school hopefully a little bit better place to be. So again, we are grateful for your dedication and the positive impact that you make on these students on a daily basis. Um, also, I don't know if uh Kira or Kaye or passing the torch on Kira the president next year would want to put a plug in right now for being in student council. Yes. Uh and we'll also call Maya up here because she is on the um officer next year. Well student council this year pretty
041good thing about doing lots of new things this coming year. you know, lots of opportunities. You get to plan a lot of the events that our school does and overall just a great opportunity. So, I really um urge you to join next year. And so if you have any ideas or thoughts or want to be involved in student council or like I said if you don't but you have an idea see one of these not um giving up her title uh but see one of these young ladies and they'd be happy to bring uh that to the uh student council meetings. Uh before I let these guys go I also want to give a special um uh award. Again, the awards are not here, but I want to give a special award to our wake
042up warriors. Um, these three ladies did a very nice job of helping out this uh all year long. I don't think that there was a day day that we were closed that we could have been open um because they showed up every day. Um, and so, uh, first semester it was Emily Curran and Danny Martin. And then, uh, second semester it was Danny Martin and, uh, Sammy Pressure. If you three would come down, [Applause] please. And after I give them their congratulations, um, we're going to move on to National Honor Society. So for National Honor Society, um I don't have anything to give out now because last week we had our uh induction ceremony, but I do want to say that, you know, today is the day that we're recognizing, you know, the academic uh
043part of what we do here at Blackhawk. I know that there are plenty of other things to do. Uh but these uh 11 individuals have have um you know given their time, you know, athletically. They have given their time to FFA and many other organizations, but they've also given their time uh to their academics. And not just academics, the other pillars uh for National Honor Society as well. But I want to recognize one more time our seniors, Maddie Lang, Molly Edler, and Olivia Signner. Our juniors, Olivia Rutiger, Emily Viggy, Kira Brunner, Riley Corley, Taylor Spiegel, and Maya Mills. And our newly inducted, there were only two of them. Um, so hopefully we can change that for next year, Jacy Cas and Maddie Place. But gentlemen, gentlemen, I encourage you. We need your representation up here
044in the future as well. All right. So, congratulations to our National Honor Society. And next up, Mr. Okay. Uh, so next up is Mr. Ericson for the WA Scholar Athlete. How many of you ever heard the uh term dumb job? None of you have ever heard that. Thank you, Isaac. Nobody else has ever heard it. You've heard it. So, uh, I thought it was something that was still said a little bit, perhaps not. Maybe I'm dating myself a little bit by using that phrase, but that phrase used to be, uh, used in terms of describing athletes, um, and the fact that maybe they didn't have the greatest abilities in the classroom. However, if you look at studies all over uh, certainly our country as well as the world, um, it shows that most athletes are
045actually some of the better academics academic students in both schools at the high school level as well as the collegiate level. Uh many studies have been done about what we do with our time and most of the time we find that people who are involved in athletics are the ones who manage their time well, organize themselves well and actually perform better in the classroom than their peers who are not involved in athletics. And so, uh, as a coach, as someone who, uh, has been really involved with athletics throughout my life, I recognize that there's a need to, uh, recognize those who have achieved both athletically and academically and have balanced things and have done well in both of those. In the state of Wisconsin, most sports have something that is called uh, a coaches association.
046So, for example, as a track coach, I'm involved with the Wisconsin Track Coaches Association. There's a football coaches association. Our football coaches go to their clinic every spring uh in February. Went to our track coaches association clinic. Our basketball coaches have an association that represents the state of Wisconsin as well. Virtually every sport here in the state has a coaches association. Attached with that uh again is a recognition that those coaches have uh to recognize those athletes involved in those sports for their academic achievements as well. And so this year we had a fantastic uh girls basketball team that scored really well at the academic level of things. I think our volleyball team did quite well. Uh and there's a whole host of ways that each of those coaches associations determine uh who is going
047to be uh an academic all state participant. I don't know exactly all the criteria for every individual sport. However, I do know about the track and field sport. We actually do have a couple of athletic excuse me academic steam uh participants or awards today in sport of track and field uh by the coaches association here in Wisconsin. criteria for the track uh academic state is that the athletes must achieve a grade point of 3.75 or higher. Uh they also have to have been on the track and field for a minimum of two years and they have to be a senior and in good standing. So this year we have two uh those people from our school. Uh so I want to recognize them and bring them forward at this point. Boes and Molly Edward. Congratulations.
048Another award that uh is given is the WIAA scholar athlete award. And so uh this award is based on a nomination by a school for a male and a female from the school who's a senior. Uh the WIA sets up a whole criteria again of how that award is scored. Those include grade point efforts. They include enrollment. They include numbers of championships. They include participation within the teams that they are part of, letters that they've earned, postseason awards, where they became uh things uh athletically um and awards that they may have received there to pretty rigorous uh uh I don't know what the word is but pretty rigorous thing that they have to go through in terms of trying to uh to uh get get selected I guess is what I'm And so, uh, if
049you ever see someone who's been given that award, uh, as a scholar athlete by the WIA, it means they've achieved quite a bit. I watched earlier this spring the 2024, uh, academic and athletic achievements by the WI athletes. And I noticed that every single one of those students had a 4.0 point average. Virtually all of them were involved in three sports uh, and achieved quite well in that as well. Our seniors that were nominated this year and while they didn't get to the semifinal round they certainly are deserving of this award are Owen Seph and Mandy [Applause] Lis. Nice. [ __ ] I don't know how How we doing on time? Good. Good. We got to stretch it out a little bit more. Mr. Eric did a fantastic job right with his feet. That's pretty good. So,
050you get to listen to me now the rest of the time, right? That's an attitude thing, right, Landon? Remember that. I think those wolf used a sign that said or something like that. So Landon, you get to listen to me now for the next 15 minutes, right? It's very exciting, isn't it? All right, you've done good. You've done pretty good. So we just few minutes left here and we'll be moving on with our day. But uh before we uh do some things here, I'm I've got Miss Karate some a lot of awards here from that really Miss Crowy gets and organizes uh through her department. And so the first one and I do we do we have a certificate right here. Got it. All right. This first one all this stuff is Y. So in
051Wisconsin there is a organization and I don't know how old this organization is. Maybe Mr. Beny is also a historian. Mr. Ben, you know much about the Daughters of the American Revolution. Okay. I don't know how old it is. There are some organizations that are really really old. trace back. It can actually go back to the late 1700s. Okay. So, the Daughters of the American Revolution Reese, have you heard of the American Revolution? Good. This is a program that recognizes uh good citizenship and uh and that is important, right? Because we all live in communities and so we don't want to be living in crimeinfested communities. We want to be good citizens. And uh this recognizes a graduating senior that has all of those qualities. There's four pillars and qualities that the Daughters of the
052American Revolution recognize. Dependability. Can we count on you? Right? That's a big one. I don't know if we still give out those t-shirts, but we used to have t-shirts on the back that said, "Count on me." That was a big deal. Can we count on you? Okay. Dependability, service. Are you all about yourself or do you actually give of your time to a cause or to other people or you just circle the wagon and it's me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me, right? So service, which is a part of leadership, right? And then patriotism and that that could be a good debate, right? Nowadays, what patriotism looks like, right? That would be a great debate maybe in
053civics seniors maybe talk a little bit about what patriotism actually is. But uh this particular person that was recognized by the daughter of the American Revolution had to complete a resume had to do an essay. Uh they had to write the essay in a specific amount of time. uh this person received a certificate and a pin and I don't there might be scholarships associated with being a part of this but this year's daughters of the American revolution uh recipient for black is Molly [Applause] Edwards next thing we're going to get into is academics now we're stretching this out a little bit but I want you to Listen. Okay, I want you to listen. And now all the teachers are sitting over here, right? But a few of them. Okay. Bryson. Where's Bryson? What time you
054clock in in the morning? Huh? 6 o'clock. You actually clock in or you got a time card on your phone? You have to clock in. Is it on your phone? No. 6:00. Are you clock in at 6:00? When do you clock out? What's that? What about on a non school day? When do you clock out of work? 4:30. And get a half hour lunch. All right. So, that's a long day, right? 6:00 to 4:30. But when you clock out, how much are you doing job related stuff after you clock out? You working after you clock out? You do a little bit. Yeah. So what I want you to understand is this. Teaching is a job that often times gets run through the polls. A lot of people disrespect teachers. They they disrespect the teaching profession.
055You hear that, right? And I think that's unfortunate, right? That that uh a lot of people disrespect teachers. I think a lot of people think that teaching is just turn your books to page five, right? And then let's all read this together and then answer these questions and then then it's over and then you go on to the next thing, right? But that's not that's not teaching. That's not good. What do you expect out of a out of a high school when you have kids someday? What are you going to expect out of a high school? Is it just uh go and go to class and do a little bit of work and then leave? No. What people are searching for are opportunities for their kids. What organizations do you offer? What athletic programs do
056you offer? What clubs do you offer? Right. Warrior. who's getting up in the morning and opening warrior wake up so you can have just a little bit right of a kind of school store approach you know coaches think about coaches Mr. What do you make, coach? 3500. 2,000. What do you make? $2,000. What time you get home tonight, you think? What time did you get home tonight, you think? Tonight 11:00. Why would you do that? What time did you get here this morning? You got here at 7 o'clock. You got to get home tonight at 11:00. You got two classes tomorrow. You got everything ready for tomorrow? You got all your lesson plans ready? Got all stuff graded. What's going on next Tuesday? Regionals. You got Who's doing that? [Music] You see what I'm saying?
057Like this Wolf just was recognized as embarrass Wolf Pearson. You don't right, Miss Wolf. How long do you think Miss Wolf Pearson has been doing this? What do you think? What do you think, Marcus? How long you think this wolf's been around? Huh? How long? Yeah. 30 days, right? 30, right? This is your 30th. This is our 30th year in G. 30. Okay. Now, now listen. Now, come back to me. do something for 30 years. Do something for 30 years. You do the You do the same job for 30 years. How ambitious are you to get up in the morning and go to that job? You do something for 30 years. How ambitious are you? You put a lot of time in. You know, we talked about Coach Ericson does going to be getting home
058tonight at 11. Coach Wolf, she's coached a long time. She taught a long time. You do something for 30 years. Are you super motivated? No. How much extra are you willing to do? Some of you right now, how much extra are you willing to do? Not much. Right? Like you It's fun time. I'm off the clock now. It's fun time. It's my time. Right. But yet she's she's talking 30 years. yet. Who gets up in the morning and is here opening up that warrior wake up? Miss Wolf. We like like all high schools, we like to have a National Honor Society organization to recognize our kids. But you can't have a National Honor Society organization unless you have an advisor. You get paid to be the advisor. How much? 500 bucks. 500 bucks. 500 bucks.
059You can spend 500 bucks just like that, right? You go to Best Buy, spend 500 bucks, not even blink. What happens if Miss Wolf doesn't volunteer to do that? All you kids who just got recogniz $250? If she doesn't do that, we don't have the opportunity to do that. So, here's the thing about your teachers that are sitting over there, right? It's a disrespectful profession. It doesn't get enough credit. But in order for you to do even the things that we're able to do at this small high school, if it's not for those people willing to do it, we don't have it. We don't have it. Okay? So, say what you will about coming here and everything else, Jaden. Right. Say what you will, right? They deserve your respect. They really do. Right. Cuz often
060times you get frustrated cuz you think it's stuff that they're doing to you, Xander. They're not doing anything to you, right? The state of Wisconsin says that you need to be exposed to certain things and they're the mechanism that delivers it to you. So long story short, right? No matter what you think about coming to school, right, you should be appreciative for the work that they do do because the majority of people, Richie, want to see you fail. People love to beat you down. You think about that. You think about people that are at the top of their craft. The majority people, you think they celebrate them or do you think the majority of people want to see them fall? How many of you hate Taylor Swift would love to see Taylor Swift fail? Right.
061Yeah. Right. Just being a hater. And that's the thing. The majority of people that you come across want to see you fail. And they will take joy and pride in your failures. is life is competition except for maybe your mom, maybe some of your fathers, but usually your mothers. Mothers will love you no matter what you are, right? Fathers, not so much sometimes, right? But as far as cheerleaders go, people that actually want to see you do good, these are just a few of those people in your life that want to see you do good. So, give them a round of applause. stand up. Paul, stand up. Owen, stand up. I want these three here real quick. Okay. Not all of them probably are going to talk. Maybe one of you I want to talk.
062Miss Wolf came out and she did her math awards. Um but we often show you and talk to you about there are other opportunities besides what is done here and what is taught here. So you're you're kind of limited by what you know or your ambition. Okay. But these three just got done. Are you done? Did you pass? These three just got done with a four cut or a five. They just got done completing a five credit math class from the University of Wisconsin. University of Wisconsin Asha. Five credits. How much does five credits cost us if we're going to take that in college? What's 500? 2500 bucks. So, it's about a $2,500 class if you were going to pay for it in college. So these these three took and finished a college pre-calculus class,
063right? So very was that was it easy? It's pretty hard class, right? Pretty hard class. And they did that through not Wash, but the instructor, his name is Chris Collins. Mr. Collins teaches at Monaceel High School. How many of you knew that here at Blackbox there are ways for you to take classes from teachers at other schools? How many of you knew that? Right. A few. So, there's all kinds of those opportunities out there. Like I said, you're limited by what you don't know and you're ambitious. What do you think of Mr. Collins, Bo? What do you think of Mr. Collins? Uh, pretty nerdy. Pretty nerdy, right? Nerds rule the world, right? Boom. Right. Very smart guy. Yeah. Okay. How was the class? Like how did you see Mr. Good. How did that go? Was
064it respondable? Like did he see you? Yeah. He could see you and he could hear you. And were there other kids in that class? Where were they? They were all and you can see them and they can see you. So, it was like being there, right? And when you had questions in pre-kelp with Mr. Collins, how did that go? Was it pretty responsive? Could what' you do? Raise your hand or just give a shout out or email them or what if you didn't understand what was going on? How did that work? Owen, you just asked the question there. Right. And so, overall, how was your experience taking that distance learning class? Did you like it or was it pretty difficult? Pretty good. It was pretty good. And where did you take the class in the
065old office? So, you just you just had a spot, right? Anybody watching you supervising you to take that? So, it's like kind of like college. So, I'm not going to ask them what grade they finished up with, right? I'm not going to ask you what grade you finished up with, but they were in taking their final exams uh just last week, so hopefully it's okay. But it's a tough class. I give them applause for [Applause] out there and that was to our seniors who are going to get in this crowd. Everything's a segue into this. Okay, I need a little help up here. So, another thing that sophomores, sophomores and juniors that are signed up for your dual credit courses next year through Southwest Tech, have you registered? We all good? Emma, you good? Yep,
066we're all good. Reese, we all good. You got your email. You registered. For those of you that are doing the school to work in the youth apprenticeship, you guys got your classes all figured out for next year. If you don't have your classes figured out for next year, right? It's not up to Mr. [ __ ] to come find you so that you can have your four hours of work. It's up to you to find him, right? Figure out those courses. So, you see, how many of you know what an IP is? Independence pass. How many of you see an IP? Right? How many of you seen kids out in the comments or in the study room on their phones? What the heck? Are they on their phone? What? What? On their phones? So, IP independent and
067you've shown that you have the character traits to be independent. A lot of our IP kids that you see kind of on their own during the day working and yes, they can have their phone and yes, they got a little bit more freedom. A lot of them are taking these dual credit courses and most of the time from Southwest Tech, but it doesn't always have to be through Southwest Tech. So, this has become very popular. And so, uh, you should look to take advantage of this. It's a great way to get a jump start on a career. Uh, Taylor, where's Taylor? So, Taylor, Taylor's in the nursing program at Southwest Tech in Fammore. And then she's done some stuff in Highland. Is that right, Taylor? At Highland College. And so, Taylor, right now, do you
068even come to school on Friday? before she did not come to school on Friday. And then next year, how often are you going to be in school next year? Monday, Tuesday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Okay. And so, uh, when you graduate from high school, Taylor, not I'm sorry I put you on the spot. I know it's probably, but when you graduate from high school, Taylor, what does your schooling look like after that? Are you just ready to go right into your clinicals? I'll have one more year. One more year and then after that you will be fully employed as a nurse. So one year after high school, fully employed as a nurse. And it's not just nursing. There's a lot of other things that are out there. So it's smart to be involved in this. These
06910 seniors have participated in this program and earned college credit as well as high school credit. And I don't know if they're in order. Hopefully they are, Mr. Kenny. So come on up and receive your cord, which you can wear at graduation ceremony this Friday. Boes, Alyssa Broy, Molly Edler, Richie Hagen, Matt Lenn, Emily McCoy, Ally now, Owen Seph, Olivia Singer, and Haley Wel. Congratulations. [Applause] So, check that out. And you can take classes from anywhere. like Reese, your brother Gavin is going to WMadison for computer science. Is that right? And so when Gavin was here, uh, how many of you have signed up for Blackhawk's computer programming class next year? How many of you have signed up for Blackhawk's fundamentals of computer science next year? Yeah, we don't have one, right? But computers, computer
070science, like you want to make some money, maybe you should get into computer science, right, Reese? But anyway, Gavin is at Madison computer science. When Gavin was here in high school, his senior year, he was taking computer science classes from W Whitewater. So, right, you're only limited by what you don't know. So, go ask Miss Friday, "Hey, I'm really interested in this." Go ask Mr. I'm really interested in this because there's a lot of these apprenticeship programs that are available too. And just one last thing I want to say about math because I know that math math has kicked some of you in the rear end. But of all the things that you do of all the things that you do at school, even though yeah, how am I going to use this math? You
071might not. But in terms of developing your brain and helping you be able to actually solve problems, it's huge. I'll give you two examples. Right? We got a young man that's at W Milwaukee right now go undergoing I don't know what engineer program civil mechanical or whatever but a lot huh mechanical engineering. Okay. And a lot of that is calculus freed stuff, right? And as much as some of you are like math is hard math hard. I can't do Wolf art, right? You know, right? This young man said that without Miss Wolf, without taking those classes, he could not be doing what he's doing right now. And I think Gavin would probably say say the same thing. You imagine, you got to challenge yourself if you want to do these things, especially these jobs. You're
072going to make a lot of money. You got to challenge yourself. So, yeah, it's hard, but enjoy the hardest. You got to do it. Life is hard. Okay, so that's a shout out to Miss Wolf, but I want to say I want to go another route because I know a lot of you aren't going to four-year college and you're not going to be engineers. I just personally know this. Okay, so my son, so uh Kayen, you probably don't you probably don't know Ken's I don't remember when he graduated 2020. So a few years ago. So he went to the army and then he went to W lacrosse and uh he did not like school. He would he didn't like school. He didn't like going to school like a lot of you. Okay. And so he
073he dropped out of college and he was looking to be a a plumber. He was looking to get a plumbers's apprenticeship, be a journeyman, get job with a union. Hold on. And that wasn't working out. He couldn't find somebody to take him on as a journeyman, but he he knew he wanted to do union work. Okay. So he knew he wanted to work for a union. So he ended up getting uh uh heating and cooling. So HVAC stuff, right? and look up all the, you know, different types of duck work. And so he did get into a union there and he was doing all the mechanical duck work, right? So for eight hours a day, he's like this up above his head, right? Pulling, putting stuff up, right? That's a lot of shoulder work. Do
074that for 30 years. That's your shoulders will be shot after 30 years of doing it. But that's what he was doing. And I think he was making uh his takehome after benefits and things like that. I think just starting out, right? It was like 27 bucks an hour. So, you know, it's pretty good. Okay. 27 bucks an hour. But then in union work, if you're going to go work for a union, if you want an apprenticeship, a lot of times like electrician, plumber, some of these things, they will send you on to school, okay? They'll send you to a tech school and they'll pay for your tech school stuff, right? So, that's what happened. He and they're going to Western Tech just for this, you know, HVAC stuff, right? just a campus, you know, book.
075And to do that stuff, they ended up having me take a placement test. And I remember him going into his senior year to take personal finance to satisfy his math, right? And I made him take three calc and he whined like crazy, right? Complain and whine. I'm a senior. I just want to I just want to chill, right? It's my last year. I just want to have fun like no right. So he went in after this was about what two years after high school and so he had to take his test and because of taking hard classes he was able to score high enough on the math placement that his bosses said to heck with you doing right hanging all the different duck work. We want you to do system analysts. We want you to
076actually run the programs, test the programs, do all the physics stuff that Mr. uh Ericson talked a little bit about in physical science, right? Make sure that the air flow and all that type of stuff is good. And he went from 27 bucks an hour, a good taking a test. He went from 27 bucks an hour to 35 just like that, right? not a college student, but working a blue collar job. But because he took some hard things when he didn't want to in high school, it really came back and paid paid off for. So this stuff that we're talking about today, it's not just for college. Some of you want to go in the military. Some of you want to go into the military. I talked to a lot of you. You want to
077go to the mil? Some of you want to go into the Air Force, right? There's one person who wants to go into the Navy. Well, let me tell you something. When you take that ASAP, if you don't score high enough in math, you're not going to the Air Force. If you don't score high enough in math, you're not going to the Navy. The Marines will take you. Okay? So, don't be afraid to challenge yourself, okay? when it comes to taking some of these classes. Which then leads me to the U warrior award, the principal's warrior award given to a senior. There's a $50 gift card associated with this. The reason that we give this award is this. We're a small school, Woody. And so we have all these organizations, right? And so like the volleyball
078coach, she wants to have a good volleyball program. The football coach, he wants to have a good football program, right? Mr. Duff wants to have a quality music. Miss Nats wants to have a quality FA program, right? Mr. Belie wants to have a quality You didn't call it FBA anymore or you got a different thing. He wants to have a quality FB FA program. The choir director wants to have a really good choir. The band instructor wants to have a really good band, right? And at these small schools, just look around, there's a hundred of them. If you didn't participate, those organizations wouldn't exist. So the principal's award like when Hunter holds and and this this is this is something. So when Hunter put out his senior profile and Jaden put out his senior profile
079and Ethan put out their senior profile their their their motto or their comment and this is legit and this is absolutely true. Their comment was there's life outside of high school. Exactly. Right? You have to find a passion to make it through life. If you don't have a passion, because let me tell you, most of you, your day job is not going to be very sexy. Your day job is going to be pretty monotonous. So, you better find a passion. So, there is life outside of high school and there's merit to that. However, we are a high school and we need kids to do these things. So, the principal award goes to someone who has contributed to all of our organizations as best they could. And this was tough because there's a couple of seniors
080that literally have been in almost everything, but not quite. All right. So, this person, first of all, is just a quality person. I've never in 12 years ever had a bullying accusation against her. I've never had uh had to have any drama, right? We've never had we never had her and some of her friends go to Miss Friday to help smooth out some social issues, right? Never been in my office for disciplinary reasons. Never been kicked out of class. Second of all, three sport athletes. But in addition to a three sport athlete is in the FBA, is in forensics, is highly involved in FA, is in the student council. She did it. She works in the play. But other than that, she did just about everything and she did it incredibly well and she should
081be super proud and we are proud of her. Molly Edward and we'll go to lunch. When your name is called, please come down to our appreciation for your effort and hard work. And for for private sakes, take a shirt. How come you don't like these shirts? I got to get rid of these shirts. Take the take a shirt. Even if you don't want it, take a shirt. All right, here we go. Nominated by Mr. Ericson, Kylie Sedat. Nominated by Mr. O'Brien, Jersey Weel, nominated by M. Bolt, Danny Pressure, nominated by Mr. Duck, Brandon McCoy, nominated by Mr. [ __ ] Jaden Price, nominated by Mr. Kitty, Caitlyn Steel, nominated by Mr. Gavin Ste nominated by Mr. Ellison. Jay Scott nominated by Mr. Amway. Spencer Hay Scott. Ian Groo received the nomination and nominated by Miss Thomas Blake
082N. Those are your names. [Music] [Applause] No, no. And the check is here. Now, hold on. Stay here. Stay. The check is here. It's not in my hand. Okay. So, whoever gets the $50 soon the month, you'll have to go see Mr. Sheffle before you leave today. Okay. All right. So, our main student, our $50 winner, who gets a shirt gets two shirts, [Applause] Spencer, $25 gift card to the South Plain, Marta recipient. Come get out some give out some gas money here, Spencer. Get out some gas money. Who we got? Kale Corley given by Mr. Penny. Right. Congratulations. Okay, we're off the mic. Oh my god. [Music] shirt. What a shirt. I think I have a [Music] double Here it works. Tell me how many [Music] hours I can wrap it together. I have
083to There was