Class of 2010 Honored with Senior Awards

It was a bit sultry in the Belmont High School auditorium Tuesday morning, June 1, as the entire senior class sat in the lower section of seats, their final pre-graduation assembly.

But rather than hearing a lecture or being told the events of their graduation week (those would come later) this gathering was called to celebrate themselves.

Before parents, teachers and colleagues, the best and the brightest of the class of 2010 were lauded with awards and recognition for their smarts, athleticism and talent in the past four years.

"Today we will hear about the many ways this remarkable group of young people have distinguished themselves in the classroom, on the playing field and in the concert hall," said Principal Michael Harvey.

"I can say that I'm truly proud to have been their principal and would like to congratulate then all on a job well done," he said.

Senior Awards Day began soon after the school day commenced and ended with lunch and yearbooks at Belmont High School began Commencement Week by handing our the hardware and in many cases, substantial scholarships.

Despite the early hour and the stuffy and dank conditions in the auditorium, the annual assembly was a light-hearted affair with friendly cat calls for favorite athletes – even the athletic director had his own chant created by the seniors - and cheers for every recipient as many climbed the stage stairs to in nearly all the cases with a quick shy handshake, almost embarrassed to acknowledge their accomplishments.

(The entire list of honors is in the PDF file attached to this article.)

Many of the school awards would be familiar to any school: book awards, accomplishments in the sciences and other academic disciplines and the naming the National Merit Scholarships, 11 semifinalists, two finalists and a National Merit Scholar, Emily Kolenbrander.

In addition, the 30 seniors – about 12 percent of the class of 2010 – who achieved a perfect score on one or more SAT exam were honored.

Belmont seniors were also praised for outstanding performances in music, arts and dramatic performances. The music department came back with four gold and a silver medals in state festival competition.

Then there were honors that were Belmont High-specific. The Lillian F. Black Award for the best senior thesis went to Martha Weschler, Ian Magnusson and Maria Tyutyunik.

There were also national awards picked up by Belmont High students. All-American honors were bestowed on to Nick Martone of the boys' Lacrosse team, a league MVP in Basketball's Andrew Musler while two teams of Belmont students were both regional champions and national finalists in the National Economics Challenge.

After the ceremony, rather than go directly to class, award recipients had their pictures taken while all the seniors had to chance to pick up some memories; the Class of 2010 yearbook were handed out.