April 4, 2018 at 5:30 p.m.
Top students honored at Academic Excellence Banquet
They were guests of honor Saturday at the 2016-17 Hauser Academic Excellence Banquet.
Teachers and faculty prepared and served hors d'oeuvres, drinks and a meal for the honorees and their families, using ingredients they donated themselves and pork chops the Hauser Athletic Department sold to them at a discount, project officials said.
The local Masons sponsored the event, which also included awards to the students and a viewing of humorous videos that the students made themselves. Those videos are being posted daily and can be viewed on the Hauser Jr./Sr. High School Facebook page.
Wanda Seibert, who has long coordinated the evening with fellow teacher Jeanne Gordon, said it is her honor to recognized Hauser's best students.
"As teachers, we spend about 90 percent of our time motivating the unmotivated," she said. "This is our chance to recognize and acknowledge the other students, the ones who do well."
Award-winning students were:
Performing at such a high academic level takes hard work.
Freshman Shelly Fugate plays basketball, volleyball and softball when she is not at school and sometimes has to study in the gaps between. As she headed through the hors d'oeuvres lines, she said the recognition helps make the sacrifice worth it.
Senior Ella Hardy, who came with her parents Brian and Staci, credited her own high marks to a combined effort with her parents. Although she works at the Chipotle restaurant in Columbus, she is able to make up the time in academics by studying on weekends.
Brandon Young, a seventh grader who came with his parents Kevin and Terri Young, said getting to celebrate his achievement with his family felt good.
He said the effort was worth it.[[In-content Ad]]
