- November 17, 2024
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Pablo Picasso once famously said, “Action is the fundamental key to success.” Through most or all of their four years as high school students, the action these award winning students took was that of trying to make success contagious.
The 2015 senior awards were handed out May 13, and what started out by a passionate National Anthem sung by Noah Reed was followed by a numerous amount of awards presented for all academic subjects to all deserving students by Kari Dutton and Chris Lam, who were actually Mr. and Ms. Matanzas this year. These awards were all voted on by the teachers of that certain subject.
“The main point is to celebrate accomplishments of our seniors and teachers and to give them some accolades,” said Principal of Matanzas High School Chris Pryor about the event.
Many awards were given out, but nobody in the senior class had more recognition than William Conville, or as most of his classmates like to call him, Liam. Conville won Excellence in Government and Politics, as well as Excellence in Advanced Placement Literature; his most gratifying awards, though, came later in the ceremony from his ROTC class, where he not only won the Distinguished Athlete Award by the U.S. Marine Corps, but Conville also received a full-time scholarship from the U.S. Air Force.
“Honestly, anyone could have won these awards," he said. "I am so very blessed to have received these honors. ... I ran cross country and track this year, as well as soccer, and my coach, the teachers, my friends, my family, and the people around me all made it easier for me along the way. … As much work as I put in, I got a lot of help from everybody, too.”
Just about matching Conville was Joanette Gonzalez, who accomplished just about a clean sweep of all the subjects for the academic awards, winning Excellence in Macroeconomics, Advanced Placement Physics, and Dance Performance. Gonzalez also won the Medallion of Excellence award from the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
“It was unexpected,” Gonzalez said. ”I definitely put a lot of work into this. I really didn’t get as much time as everybody else did because I danced all the time, and, when I got home, I would do all my homework until about midnight.”
Woody Allen once said, “Seventy percent of success in life comes from showing up.”
Nobody showed up more than Jeffrey Simon, who won the Perfect Attendance Award, along with four others for showing up to school every day for 720 straight days.
“A lot of it was just grinding through it,” Simon said. “I wasn’t about just staying home just because my immune system’s low.”
“The Perfect Attendance Award is an incredible achievement,” said Ken Seybold, assistant principal of Matanzas. “I’m sure there were days where these students didn’t feel a hundred percent and because of that it’s a great tribute to their work ethic.”
Below is a list of other award winners from Wednesday night:
Senior Award Honors
Perfect Attendance:
Elizabeth Wells
Jeffrey Simon
Mikayla Short
Joshua Pedron
Nalinie Ragnauth
Armada Award
Charlie Elman
Excellence in AP Geography
Nicholas Robinson
Excellence in AP Psychology
Nikol Fedotova
Excellence in Government & Politics
William Conville
Excellence in Macroeconomics
Joanette Gonzalez
Excellence in AP Statistics
Nicholas Robinson
Excellence in AP Calculus BC
Isabel Hess
Excellence in AP Environmental Science
Ashley Savage
Excellence in AP Physics
Joanette Gonzalez
Excellence in Chemistry
Alivia Shelby
Excellence in Marine Science I
Bailey Pickering
Excellence in Marine Science II
Kenzie Forgie
Excellence in Drawing
Nikki Plastini
Excellence in Painting
Allison Hartnett
Excellence in Digital Photography
Isabel Hess
Excellence in Ceramics
Tselote Holley
Outstanding Musical Excellence in Steel Band
Jonathan Guilbe
Outstanding Musical Excellence in Chorus
Noah Reed
Excellence in Dance Performance
Joanette Gonzalez
Outstanding Musical Excellence in Band
Christopher Barber
Outstanding Excellence in Theater
Isabel Hess
Excellence in Digital Music Production
Noah Lerman
Excellence in Italian
Carolina Huerta
Excellence in English IV
Samantha Howe
Excellence in English IV Honors
Mikayla Short
Excellence in AP Literature
William Conville
Excellence in Ag Biotechnology
Haley McQueen
Excellence in Plant Biotechnology Sciences
Thomas Rocco
Excellence in Marketing Management
Nicole Corder
Excellence in the Coffee Spot
Jack Havers
Excellence in Culinary
Gina Evans
Excellence in JROTC
Ian W. Pingshaw
