By Ada Shin ‘25
The Honors Assembly has been a staple tradition at St. Andrew’s. The assembly intends to uplift and celebrate the students’ achievements, but over time, the Assembly has started to lose its sparkle. Based on student and faculty feedback, the administrators are making some changes.
For regular Honor Roll, both effort and academic, students’ names will be scrolling slowly on the screen while student-led music plays in the background. Students on the High Academic and Effort Honor Roll will still be invited to the front to shake hands with Mr. Kosasky and Ms. Cobb. And in addition to Mr. Kosasky’s speech, there will be a student speaker.
“Due to the increase in the student body, some faculty felt we needed to restructure the assembly,” Ms. Cobb explains, “We received feedback on ways to restructure it from both students and faculty, so we added a student speaker, the jazz band and added the honor roll designation on the report cards.”
These changes should speed up the Honors Assembly, as well as create a larger differentiation between High and Regular Honor Roll, a welcome change for some.
Some students say that it feels too easy to get into the Honor Roll, making it feel more like an expectation than a hard-earned achievement.
“At first I felt accomplished, but more so when I got the High Academic Honor Roll,” comments Senior Benny O’Neill, “For me, I feel like 3.2 for normal is too easy to feel fulfilled whatsoever, and it results in a lot of people being able to go up, so it’s just a long assembly.”
“These people are really smart; they’ve earned the honor, so we should honor them,” said junior Peter Cavanaugh. “However, I don’t think [the Honors Assembly] properly illustrates how difficult, say, the High Honor Roll is because it also honors the Normal Honor Roll in the exact same way in its current form.”
Upon hearing about the changes to the Honors Assembly’s format, some students became more interested in attending the next Assembly to see how they would look.
“[These changes] make me wanna go more,” said senior Olivia Strause, “Normally, I don’t want to go to the Honors Assembly. But this has less movement for people, and seeing the different format would make me more eager.”
“I think it’s good that they made it more efficient because over time, the focus became on how long the assembly took as opposed to honoring and recognizing students,” said senior Danny Lobsenz.
“I do think changing the way the High Honor Roll operates is better,” says Peter Cavanaugh, “However, still honoring the normal Honor Roll is a noble intention, and it’s still getting done. So I think that it is still very good and that it is a good change.”
On the other hand, some students still find that these changes aren’t sufficient to make the Honors Assembly something to look forward to.
“Everyone used to go up front, but now there’s names on a screen. It could probably feel a little bit degrading,” said junior Nicole Pathak. “Especially because only a couple of months ago, they were up in front of everyone. So they might feel like their accomplishments are being devalued.”
Ms. Cobb stressed that it’s essential to work hard in the face of challenges, academic or not.
“We are a community, and at the end of the year, we have awards assemblies, and you should be happy for your classmates and your teammates for what they’ve accomplished,” Ms. Cobb said. “Working hard and having perseverance are two things that will help you no matter what you do. Whether it’s a summer job, whether it’s college, whether it’s after college, whether it’s working on friendships, whatever your goals are, hard work and perseverance can really pay off.”