An Academic Letter may not seem like much to some, but it's what many high school students thrive for.
"There's a lot of awards you can get at Carson High, but this is the most prestigious,"" said former superintendent of Carson City School District and guest speaker, Mary Pierczynski. Her speech also included the value of high school years for those who have the "drive and ambition" to succeed.
In order for these driven students to get this award, each class must attain a certain grade-point average. Freshmen must have a 3.9, sophomores a 3.8, juniors a 3.7 and seniors a 3.6. At this ceremony though, all the awarded students were being congratulated for their academic achievement for the prior year.
"We are one of the few schools that has an actual letter for academics," said new principal Ron Beck.
In the past years, this award has been almost impossible to receive, but with the new statewide mandated grade scale, there is a whole page " front and back " covered with recipients of the award.
"I don't think it changed it very much. The standards are still very, very high," said Beck about the vast amount of students receiving the award.
There were about 450 spectators at the ceremony, according to the organizer of the whole night, senior Julia Lapham, added to the huge amount of students receiving the award, which led to Senator Square being packed with people.
"It was a nice ceremony, but the seating was haggard," said senior Kyle Campbell.
Campbell, a third-time recipient pointed out the amount of seniors who received the award their sophomore year compared to the amount of sophomores who were receiving it this year. This year's amount of sophomores is about three times as many as the seniors who received it their sophomore year.
As this was Beck's first attendance at an Academic Letter Ceremony, he was quite impressed.
"It was great, I love to see all the kids ... It's an indication of what exactly goes on at Carson High School because academics are important here," he said.
While there is only one ceremony a year, there is also one in the spring for only seniors who have achieved the grade-point standard during their last year at Carson High.
- Briana Collings is a senior at Carson High School and editor of the school newspaper.