Just because we closed, we still continued to persevere and maintain some normalcy. One example was the virtual student appreciation rally. March 30 marked the first day of this rally, a series of videos posted over the course of five days on our school’s Instagram (@esperanzaaztecs).

Each day, a new group of students were recognized for their achievements. On Monday, the wrestling team was honored with a video, as well as further congratulations extended to the football and women’s volleyball team for their success at CIF. Monday was also the day of honoring the students with the top 10 community service hours.

Tuesday honored the sophomores with the top 10 GPA. Wednesday recognized the top 10 juniors based on GPA, as well as the Academic Decathlon team. HOSA and the seniors ranked 3rd-10th based on GPA were honored on Thursday. Finally, on the last day of the rally, the salutatorians, Brian Nguyen and Cassidy Gibson and, and the valedictorian, Kevin Nguyen, were recognized.

Junior Katrina Liu, who was recognized as having the highest GPA for her grade and receiving a medal for Academic Decathlon, viewed this honor as not particularly special because the rally was online, compared to her previous achievements. “Last year when I was blessed to receive the same recognition, I felt it as a much bigger deal, something that the entire school saw. I definitely feel relieved though, since there wasn’t much pressure from my peers as they didn’t see me in person,” she said.

Joshua Mac, a junior who ranked 4th in GPA and a HOSA Student Leadership Conference (SLC) member, said, “I felt pretty appreciated, I know that for sure, but I wish there were different types of appreciation. If the rally was in person, yes of course, I would have felt much more recognized if I knew people were actually seeing it.”

The in person rally was going to have a Star Wars theme. Although that changed, ASB still had a unique way of presenting the honors. Students were contacted through social media to inform them that they were going to be recognized for their achievement. These individuals sent in brief clips of themselves, which were then put together in a Full House style presentation. Mac said that the best part of the rally was that “the videos are new,” while Liu said that she “thoroughly enjoyed filming and watching them.”

Although the rally was not in person, it is still important to ensure students receive congratulations for their achievements. “This rally needs to happen because, if not for the underclass men, the seniors, through their four years of dedication, earned to be recognized. The salutatorian and valedictorian deserve to see their names be announced in front of the whole school, even if it’s on Instagram,” said Liu.

“I think it was still worth putting the rally online, especially for those with high community service hours or for those who did well in competition (HOSA and AcaDec). I genuinely appreciated it,” said Mac.