On April 17, Stevenson hosted their annual senior awards night at the Performing Arts Center (PAC) at 7 p.m. This event honors the nominated seniors and their accomplishments throughout the past 4 years. 

The planning process of the event starts over two months prior to the night itself. Teachers, faculty, and advisors work to create awards and nominate students. They choose the nominees based on criteria specific to each department. 

“There are typically different criteria for each department, whether it’s music, art, theater, or dance,” fine arts director Jonathan Grice said. “It’s just really to kind of celebrate the students that have committed and gone above and beyond in all aspects of the program and to just absolutely celebrate their time here.”

Grice worked with all the fine arts teachers to nominate the especially exceptional students. After over 30 years of the Senior Award Night celebration, the format of the night changed in 2021. 

“Now it’s more of a celebration for seniors,” principal Troy Gobble said. “There’s a speaker who’s a faculty member, Mr. Bill Fritz, and there’s a speaker who’s a student this year, Ida Diab and then we’ll present all the kids’ faces in a sort of celebratory style.”\

The night changed from 90 minutes honoring students individually to a 30 minute presentation focused on the end of the seniors’ high school career. This new style of celebrating the seniors is not just more entertaining for the audience but also more rewarding for the seniors according to many audience members.

“You feel satisfied, because you’ve been here for four years already,” Evelyn Huang ‘24 said.  “It’s like you put in so much effort and then‌ you get acknowledged for your hard work and all the time you put it in.”

As Huang reflects on her past years at Stevenson, she feels the payoff of her efforts and perseverance. Along with Huang, Gobble believes that the seniors have worked hard throughout their high school experience and their last moments as seniors should be filled with pride as they reminisce.

“These are really exceptional kids who’ve worked hard on things in their career, and we want to celebrate that wonderful work,” Gobble said. “I think it’s a good way to kick off this last month and a half of school and really start off with prom and all the different events that are coming as the year goes on.”