South High recognized dozens of worthy teachers and students on Superstar Day, April 26.
This was the second-ever Superstar Day, after English teacher Melissa Gebhard started it last school year. Superstar Day was created to recognize and honor South’s students and staff who have accomplished things in and out of the classroom, as well as their character.
This year’s Superstar Day was organized and run by Math teacher Rachel Allender. Allender did all of the behind-the-scenes work for the day including making the forms to send out to staff and students, collecting the data, and organizing all the data. She also helped students create a t-shirt design, logo, and the certificates, as well as help with the creation of the assembly.
“It is important to recognize as many students and staff as possible. South is a great place to be and work and we should recognize those who make it a great place,” Allender said. “A lot of students and staff go unrecognized throughout the year, so hopefully this day allows us to recognize some of those individuals.”
Senior Belle Schjenken is part of the Patriot Representatives (PREPS) here at South and worked with Allender to execute Superstar Day.
“My first job was to create advertisements about [Superstar Day] so staff and students were aware when the day was taking place. I was also involved with passing out shirts to all the deserving students. It is so fun to walk around the halls blasting music and seeing teachers pop out and dance along as we head to whichever classroom we were headed to,” Schjenken said.
During Superstar Day, teachers and students were able to nominate, vote, and award each other based on their work ethic and character inside and outside of the classroom. It’s an opportunity to bring the school community together and celebrate each other. Throughout the day, the Patriot Representatives went class to class delivering awards, t-shirts, and prizes to deserving teachers and students. There were prizes based on ac. labs for their GPAs and most improved GPAs. There was also an assembly held in the gym during academic lab to award people in front of the school community and their parents. There were also events and games at the assembly.
Junior Zyon Thompson participated in some of the games during the assembly as well as helped deliver the awards to different classes. Thompson dressed up as the school mascot, the Patriot, and wore the head during the assembly and around the school on Friday. He also played in the balloon pop and potato sack race games during the assembly.
“The balloon pop was really fun because I won that. The sack race was very intense because I almost won that, but came in second place,” Thompson said about the games.
Senior McKenna Hilgendorf was one of the students who was awarded during Superstar Day. Hilgendorf received the PAC (Patriot Activities Community) scholarship which is awarded by community parents for people involved in a lot of school activities, as well as the FACS scholarship for her future schooling in education.
“Superstar Day for me was exciting and nerve-racking. Exciting because I knew I got an award and I had no idea what it was so looking forward to it was super fun. Nerve-wracking because I did not realize a lot of people would show up from different grades, teachers, and even my parents came, which I had no clue about,” Hilgendorf said.
“It also impacted me just by the amount of people cheering and congratulating me. I never realized how many people I know/know me in my school community. It showed everyone around me how hard I work in school,” Hilgendorf added.
Faculty members Jenny Nelson, Christina Alexander, Allison MacDonald, and Vanessa Hill also played a big part in the execution of Superstar Day when it came to planning, organizing, and advertising.
“I think that this is an important day because it allows the students to have fun throughout the school day. We as students spend hours upon hours sitting in and out of classrooms doing work, one day of fun and celebration is deserved,” Schjenken said. “This experience taught me the importance of showing appreciation and gratitude to the people around you. I loved being able to see people get excited as we walked the halls.”
Thompson was one of the students who recognized students throughout the day.
“I had the most fun running into classes with music and just seeing people smile when I walked in,” Thompson said. “I’ll definitely be doing it again next year; y’all will see me with the head on again.”
Schjenken said she hopes Superstar Day continues to be a tradition.
“It’s an amazing thing that Parkway South does and I hope they continue to do it because it’s such a fun opportunity to bring everyone together. I always feel so fulfilled after even if I didn’t know every person I was giving an award to. I got to make someone happy and feel cherished/appreciated,” Schjenken said.
