Republic class of 2020 scholarship, award winners honored in virtual ceremony

Traditionally, Republic High School holds Senior Awards Night near the end of every school year to honor graduating seniors who have won scholarships or other academic achievements. This year, however, the restrictions in place to help slow the spread of COVID-19 made it impossible for the district to hold the traditional awards ceremony. Instead, the district honored high-achieving members of the class of 2020 with a virtual awards ceremony, recognizing the award-winning seniors for their accomplishments. The virtual ceremony was posted to the RHS Facebook page on Monday, May 4.
Principal Tyler Overstreet said the virtual awards ceremony recognizes 113 students and consists of 128 slides divided into two slide shows.
“(The platform) would not allow that many slides on one show,” Overstreet said.
The slideshow began with a video recording Republic class of 2020 member Victoria Ogbeifun reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by a message from Overstreet. The following slides list the seniors and the scholarships and other academic awards they have won.
In his message, Overstreet lamented the fact that the seniors could not receive their awards in person, and praised them as “true examples of what it looks like to lead the way and win the day.”
“While we wish we could celebrate and honor our seniors in person, we are excited to showcase the recognitions, awards and scholarships received by our graduating seniors through this virtual platform,” he said. “These honors are reflective of the commitment and dedication of the students you will see recognized tonight. Their hard work, perseverance and drive throughout their academic careers has led them to
these accomplishments.
We are very proud of how well they have represented themselves as students of Republic High School.”
While the virtual awards ceremony did give the students the recognition they deserved, Overstreet said it couldn’t replace the traditional Senior Night.
“We are missing the face-to-face element with students and families,” he said. “I think our scholarship presenters would have liked to be able to give the students their scholarship in person. A lot of our scholarships are memorial scholarships and they really have a nice message regarding who they are honoring and why they are there. I think it is more meaningful in person than reading it off of a slide.
Overstreet said the virtual awards ceremony was put together by “counselors, Brandy (Krudwig), myself and lots of phone calls and emails to parents and students.”
Overstreet also said that collectively, the RHS class of 2020 was awarded $5.79 million
in scholarships.