The Real End of the School Year

Here it is: the real end of the full school year. Today, I attended and ushered at the seniors' commencement, the ceremony of which also included some school and department awards.

In my understanding, a school award is something that the entire, well, school considers while a department award is fully determined by people inside the department it deals with. School awards are more than just mastery of whatever field they are mostly related to; they require application of that knowledge to improve the moral climate of the institution.

Now, two days ago, there was the promotion ceremony, at which one technology award was presented. It did not go to me, as it was specifically marked to go to a junior. (The IT director tried to give it to me anyway, but that's another (very hilarious) story.) I did not know there were other awards, but in fact there were two more presented today. The first one was a school award, the Dr. Michael A. Novello Technology Award, named after a former head of the school. This was for "leadership in integration of technology", which I probably served by helping teachers set up things and fix information security issues. The second, which I was not expecting to receive at all, was the Computer Science department award, which is simply to recognize excellence in the CS field.

Holding both certificates and the plaque newly engraved with my name

Holding both certificates, with 100% more IT director

Congratulations to the graduates!