There are two times in the entire school year when all of our students are on campus together. For the first assembly of the year, we have a late start for the students working that day. And the last assembly of the year is held on the Friday after the last day of work. We refer to the last assembly as Senior Send-Off. Seniors get shout-outs and props from their classmates before graduation the next day. They announce the colleges they will be attending in the fall and, for those who qualify, they receive their cords or sashes to wear with their graduation robes – Magna, Summa, and Cum Laude GPAs, National Honors Society, Student Council, etc. Senior Send-Off also doubles as our Year-End Awards assembly.
At Cristo Rey St. Martin we have many of the typical awards you would expect, such as recognition of our Student Ambassadors program, Athletics, Arts, and Campus Ministry. Also, for each grade level, we honor a Corporate Work Study Outstanding Worker and Outstanding Academic Achievement (Highest GPA).
Unlike most schools, however, we also recognize a student from each grade for being Most Improved Academically. This award is as highly valued as any of the others. Huge rounds of applause follow the announcement of each name. It is a communal celebration of having a growth mindset! Our principal frequently reminds students that they need “claim” their education. Students need to be active agents in procuring their education, not passive recipients of instruction.
The teacher who presented the Junior award put it this way, “At face value, the award for most improved is given to a student whose grades have jumped, but I think the award encompasses a lot more than that. It is also meant to recognize better academic habits, greater ownership over your education, and growth as a person overall.” She described the student’s progress this way:
“When I taught him freshman year, he might have told you that he just wasn’t a good student and had just accepted that about himself. Two and a half years later, it is clear that this guy can see what he is capable of. Freshman year, just staying on task long enough to complete classwork was tough and passing in homework was out of the question. This semester in theology, he has no missing or late assignments. Whereas he once struggled just to stay awake for the whole period, he is now a thoughtful, curious, and engaged student, raising the bar for others around him. Brian, your teachers always knew that you’re capable of greatness, and we’re glad that you can see that now, too.”
Diego was the sophomore award winner. One of his teachers mentioned, “He has grown into an incredibly responsible student that has taken ownership over his learning.”
A teacher for the freshman winner, Jaylene, illustrated her progress in this way:
“[She] has grown tremendously throughout the year. The transition from middle school to high school can be difficult and many students struggle at the start of the year. This was the case for this student. In math, this student struggled to understand and keep up with the topics in class and therefore did not perform well on assignments and tests.
Throughout the year, this student recognized that they were not doing as well as they wanted to and really worked to make a change. She opted into AAP (CRSM’s Academic Assistance Program) so she could get extra help during study hall and started coming to [office hours during her] Flex time to ask questions about the homework. Not only did she want to improve her grade, but she really wanted to make sure she had a strong understanding of the material. She took her time on her work, and it started paying off. Her test scores and understanding of the material started improving.”
Humor me for a moment. These awards remind of a story about Biosphere 2. Biosphere 2 was built as a prototype for self-sustaining human colonies in outer space. It is a three-acre sealed ecosystem in the Arizona desert – the largest closed system ever built. Scientists designed it as a miniature Earth, with rich soil, clean water, and carefully measured light. Among many other living organisms included in the experiment, they planted trees. They grew fast but before they could reach their full height, they buckled under their own weight. The culprit wasn’t something in the biosphere – it was something missing from its “perfect” environment: wind.
In the natural world, wind stresses trees constantly. And trees respond by producing what scientists actually call stress wood — a denser cellular structure that allows a tree to reposition itself toward light, to push around obstacles, to find what it needs when the easy path is blocked. The tree doesn’t wait to be rescued. It grows into the difficulty.
Without wind, the Biosphere 2 trees never developed that ability. They were given seemingly everything but it wasn’t enough. Because what they actually needed was to be challenged.
This is why we honor the Most Academically Improved. Students who learn how to learn are better prepared for what comes next. Our students are graced with tremendous God-given gifts but without cultivation, development, and use, those gifts – those students – do not reach their potential. The ones who flourish are not always the ones who find school easiest. They are the ones who discover in the struggle, that they are stronger than they realized… that they can reposition… they can grow toward the light.
Their strength comes from facing difficulty head-on, leaning into the wind… with people alongside them who believe in them until they believe in themselves.
¡Viva Cristo Rey!