Hail, Class 2015!
Photo by U.P. Diliman Ugnayan publication, used here non-commercially for academic purposes.
Tag: Happy Graduation
Myra emailed yesterday: “We didn’t know until his name was called!” J won the U.S. President’s Award for Academic Excellence (signed by U.S. President Barack Obama) for a grade point average of 90-100 or “A” (highest score in the US grade point system), which he received on graduation day yesterday. 
The “About” of the award from the website:
“Founded in 1983, the President’s Education Awards Program (PEAP) honors graduating elementary, middle and high school students for their achievement and hard work. The program has provided individual recognition from the President and the U.S. Secretary of Education to those students whose outstanding efforts have enabled them to meet challenging standards of excellence …
” xxx The purpose of this award is to recognize academic success in the classroom. To be eligible for the President’s Award for Educational Excellence, students at each award level (elementary, middle, or high school) must meet the requirements in Category A and either 1 or 2 of Category C. If a school does not have letter grades, a student must meet the requirements in Category B and either 1 or 2 of Category C.
President’s Award in Academic Excellence
Grade Point Average: Students are to earn a grade point average of 90 on a 100 point scale, (an A on a letter scale or a 3.5 on a 4.0 scale). When computing grade point averages at the respective award level, only the years at that level are to be included through the fall semester of the exiting grade. Note: Elementary schools are not to include K-3 in their computations.
School Criteria/Standards: Standards for the award are to be established by each school that reflect a 90 percent level or higher on the traditional grading scale. This category enables school personnel to use new assessment and evaluation tools in developing award criteria at their school and apply the criteria fairly to all students. The primary indicators of excellence must be based on academic achievement. School personnel may also consider, as part of the criteria, activities in which a student demonstrates high motivation, initiative, integrity, intellectual depth, leadership qualities and/or exceptional judgment. They may also require student essays and outstanding attendance, but these activities must bear some relationship to the academic performance of a student.
In addition to A or B, schools are to include one or more of the following criteria to determine their selected students:
State Tests and Nationally-Normed Achievement Tests: High achievement in reading or math on state tests or nationally-normed tests. The school may consider college admissions examinations for seniors, for example the SAT or ACT. xxx”
(L, his cousin, also received the award two years ago).
J graduated from elementary school a few years younger than his batch. He also won the Outstanding Service Award for his work as vice president of the student government. 
J is also a hip-hop dancer-choreographer, having choreographed and performed in numerous dance concerts; a cellist, winner of science and math contests, vice president of the student government, a swimmer in summer and skier in winter…. On ordinary, lazy days, he just plays video games and runs in the park with Argo the rescued pup. He likes to light his Lola Lyd’s birthday cake candles — HAPPY GRADUATION, J! (the embedded song from “The Script” is dedicated to all graduates this 2015, hail!)
Congratulations, J, bright heralder
Hip-hop choreographer and breakdancer
Science and math contest winner.
the Presidential excellence award holder
fills his grandma’s room with laughter
In sneakers and cargo pants, tipping skateboard and soccer
The future world leader… is an inspired cello-player.
“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build’em up with worn-out tools;
“If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
“If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,” (Rudyard Kipling)
And most of all you’ll find a home in every land.
(i changed the last line with lots of apologies)
(videos compiled for the poem by YouTube user Ryan Magnani, below)
