By Julia Blanchard ’14, Commentary Staff Writer

The Awards Ceremony has always been a controversial topic; a few kids receive most of the honors, while the majority of the class leaves empty-handed. While all of the winners are no doubt hardworking and extremely deserving of recognition, there are others whose efforts should be recognized as well. Those who put their best efforts into a class to not receive the award must wonder, “What did I do wrong?” Nothing, of course. That is what makes the decisions so hard for teachers: What makes one student more deserving of an award over another? A member of the Awards Committee, Taylor Smith ’14 states, “There are too many awards. The main problem is the same people get them, and nobody remembers them.” It seems the Award Committee finds the source of the controversy in the number of awards given, and aims to fix this in next year’s Awards Ceremony. “There will be four mission based awards next year,” says Taylor. Reducing the number seems logical, but does it really change the result? Will people still leave wondering how they did not exemplify the criteria of Newark Academy’s ideals in a student? It seems these mission-based awards have broad standards, and it goes without saying that there are more than four students deserving of the few number of honors.

I am in no way suggesting that the winners are unworthy. In fact, their accomplishments are quite admirable.  Too soon to criticize or commend, next year’s revised awards will give insight into whether they should be kept or cut. The concept of awards is great; students certainly do not receive recognition for their work often enough. However, is it worth it to make one student feel gratified, only to leave most of the class unhappy? Distaste of the awards from students not only stems from not winning an award, but the lack of diversity in those who do win. Next year’s plan for four awards solves this problem, ensuring that no one person gets more than one. We look forward to seeing how it works out, and congratulations to this year’s winners.