By Molly Seales
On Tuesday, May 9, Riverdale Academy held its annual Academic and Athletic Banquet at Davis Springs Southern Methodist Church. Teachers presented academic awards, and coaches recognized the players that had earned honors such as all-district, all stars, and all MAIS teams. Articles featuring sports have already been written in the journal. The amazing meal of fried fish, chicken strips, and jambalaya was provided by Hudd’s Catering.
Coach Jared Smelser presented history awards to senior Jessie Kate Cobb and sophomore Haylee Smith for outstanding achievement in their history classes. Dr. Hunter Brown presented the high school science award to junior Madison Chamberlin for her superior performance in chemistry this year. Mrs. Kristi Spradley had academic excellence awards for students in her classes who had the highest overall GPA for the year and outstanding student awards for students who were determined, hard working, and always on top of their school work. Her academic excellence awards went to Makayla Pickett for English I, Haylee Smith for English II, Madison Chamberlin for English III, and Baylee Whittington for English IV. Her outstanding student awards went to Alaina Boyd for English I, Shirley Boyd for English II, Will Jones for English III, and Jessie Kate Cobb for English IV. Sky McMullan received an outstanding student award for ACT Prep. Mrs. Spradley also taught Algebra III this year, and Jessie Kate Cobb received the academic excellence award and Tyler Parker received the outstanding student award. Math teacher, Amanda Cason, presented math academic excellence and outstanding student awards as well. Math awards for the highest GPA went to Julia Grace Riggs for Algebra I, Makayla Pickett for geometry, Madison Chamberlin for Algebra II, and Mason Murray and Molly Seales for advanced math. Outstanding student awards went to Haylee Guthrie for Algebra I, Charity Williamson for geometry, Will Jones for Algebra II, and Emma Clemons for advanced math.
Mrs. Cason also presented Beta service hours awards to the top two students this school year. Charity Williamson was first with 62 volunteer hours, and Shirley Boyd was second with 53.5 volunteer hours. Stock Market 1st place winners, Georgia Carlisle and Emily Nettles, were also recognized. They won 1st place out of over 60 teams competing. KREB News awards were given to Most Dedicated Ryder Huddleston, Best Reporter Hayden Hillman, and Best News Personality Will Jones.
Counselor Robin Carter presented awards to students who made a composite score of at least 20 on their ACT and maintained a 4.0 GPA for the entire school year. ACT award winners were Georgia Carlisle, Madison Chamberlin, Luke Greer, Kacie Harper, Collin Hesson, Hayden Hillman, Chloe Jordan, Emily Kirkland, Sky McMullan, Mason Murray, Molly Seales, and Sarah Kate York. 4.0 honor roll awards were presented to Madison Chamberlin, Luke Greer, Collin Hesson, Will Jones, Mason Murray, Makayla Pickett, Molly Seales, Haylee Smith, Maddie Whittington, Charity Williamson, and Sarah Kate York.
4-H and cheer awards were also given, and student council members Jessie Kate Cobb, Emma Giddings, Luke Greer, Lilly Guillot, Hayden Hillman, Will Jones, Jadyn King, Emily Kirkland, and Makayla Pickett. Literary rally awards were presented by Dr. Brown, and senior received their honor cords and Beta stoles for graduation. The final award of the evening is the highest honor given to a male and female student athlete. This award, the A.L. Sigler Award, is named after Riverdale’s first principal who placed great emphasis on academic achievement for student athletes. The male and female senior athlete with the highest grade point average gets this award, and this year’s recipients were Luke Greer and Molly Seales.
It has been a great year for both academics and athletics at Riverdale. We wish our senior scholars and athletes the best of luck in the future, and we are excited about the 2023-2024 school year.
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