Recipients of Palo Alto High School’s annual Rachel Austin awards say they are inspired to continue learning and improving in their classes after being honored at lunch on Tuesday at the Centennial Plaza.
The prizes, initiated in remembrance of former Paly teacher Rachel Austin, were bestowed upon students from each grade level for each subject department, including English, History/Social Science, Math, Science, Visual and Performing Arts, World Languages and Career Technical Education.
According to freshman Catherine Bradford, winning the Spanish award motivated her to continue her studies.
“I feel so honored and so happy that I got this [the award],” Bradford said. “This will make me even more interested in world languages and I really like the language of Spanish too.”
Assistant Principal Jerry Berkson said the award is handed out not necessarily to the highest achievers, but also those who put in the most effort.
“We have some high achieving students here and not everyone hits that peak,” Berkson said. “That’s the craziness that we have here as far as academics, and these are teacher’s favorite awards to hand out to their kids who worked their butts off and maximized their effort.”
According to sophomore Jonathan Mazor-Hoofien, he appreciates the recognition for all his efforts in engaging with English class.
“The recognition means a lot because of … how much work I have done in English,” Mazor-Hoofien said. “For me, it’s always coming to class, being excited to be there, trying to engage with the content, putting everything I had that day into what I could do and trying to think about the book and about what I could do better.”
According to sophomore Edward Oaks, who received a prize from the Math Department, he was also glad his hard work was noticed.
“I feel great and very proud of myself for all the hard work and all those extra PRIMEs that I went to to get my grade up,” Oaks said. “If I was ever struggling, I would always make sure I understood the material for the test.”
Berkson said the annual ceremony is a special way for the school to honor an impactful staff member, the award’s namesake.
“It’s a cool thing that a teacher, who through the years put in so much time and so much dedication is still recognized every year, when it’s been more than 20 years,” Berkson said. “And it will probably continue for another 20.”