‘You persevered:’ FHS Senior Awards honorees

  • Farragut High School theater seniors, from left, Cecilia Lovelace, Kylee Poole and Pierce Torano take a bow, with applause from Spanish teacher Allison Maldonado (background). The applause resulted after they received the theater program’s Champion, Outstanding Male and Outstanding Female Awards respectively during the school’s 2021 Senior Awards Celebration Program in Vickie B. Wells Auditorium Tuesday evening, May 4. - Photos by Tammy Cheek

  • FHS special education teacher Brooke Montjoy, left, presents the Beacon Award to Megan Grampy. - Photos by Tammy Cheek

  • FHS principal Dr. John Bartlett congratulates senior Rachel Barnett for receiving one of two Virtual Student Awards, a new honor this school year, which also was presented to Zack Hobson (not pictured). - Photos by Tammy Cheek

Farragut High School’s seniors reaped the rewards of their hard work this school year during FHS Senior Awards Celebration in Vickie B. Wells Auditorium Tuesday, May 4.

Though saying, “This has been a tough year,” FHS principal Dr. John Bartlett added, “Students, you did it,” noting 1,500 students were in the school building while 500 others learned virtually at home.

“You persevered,” he added. “You should be very proud of your great accomplishment.”

He challenged the seniors to find “a cause greater” than themselves “and be willing to sacrifice and stop excuses. In that moment, you will step into history.”

Out of COVID-19 came a change to this year’s program was the addition of a Virtual Student Award, which went to Zack Hobson and Rachel Barnett.

While Parker Strohl and Mikey Martenez received the Anchor Award, Megan Grampy was presented the Beacon Award.

About 30 other awards went to “outstanding” students and champions in their classes and students chosen by community organizations.

Those included the Lendon and Charlotte Welch Memorial Scholarship to Andrew Dunne and Mia Spadafora; the Evan Richey Scholarship to Christine Sprague and Mason Motley; the David Michael Green Award to Sarah Grace Hampton and Terrance Jones; Commercial Bank Award to Audrey Richards; and the Daughters of the American Revolution Good Citizen Award to Claire Broom.

Additionally, the faculty honored National Merit Scholars Aidan Cantu, Blake Cragen, Yasha Doddabele, Rulan Gu, Hayle Kim, David Lee, Claudia Levi, Bennett Ogle, Gbemisola Oladosu, Yash Patel, Vibha Raghu and Willliam Tucker; National Merit Semi-Finalist Ashton Armbrister; and National Merit Commended Scholars: Jiarui Han, Cathy Hu, Sol Kim, Sarah LaCroix, Magdalena Ohstrom, Audrey Richards and Alexander Tan.

The evening also gave talented students a chance to shine as performers.

Senior Kylee Poole sang “The Secret of Happiness” to kick things off, followed by three freshman: Jaxon Thomas performed a guitar solo, “Don’t Stop Believing;” Fiona Richardson sang “Imagine” accompanied by Thomas; and Haruki Takeuchi performed a piano solo of “Chopin Etude Opus 10#1.”

Vaccines, so no masks

Before the presentations, Bartlett told the audience that presenters and faculty members on the stage had their vaccines so they were not wearing masks.

“We wanted to have as much normalcy as possible for our students,” he said. “This has not been a normal year … we want to make sure our students get that chance (at normalcy).”