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Schools

High School Senior Reflects on Honor Dinner

Each year, the Chamber of Commerce honors a group of Highland Park seniors. Here's what the award means to the recipients.

A renowned tradition that almost all seniors participate in is Grandparents’ Day.

It is a day suggestive of “Bring Your Child to Work Day” where grandparents come to school, attend classes, play Jewish Geography in the lunchroom, but most importantly give advice (often publicly) about what high school means.

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After four years of producing a video during the day about the grandparents themselves, I’ve come to heed quite a bit of advice. The most common piece of advice is: “have fun, try new things, and make a difference.” 

The Highland Park Chamber of Commerce established the 47 years ago to honor 27 students who take that advice and apply it far beyond the expectations. In some way, each of the 27 students has made a lasting impact on the students and staff at HPHS. The press release, and letter we as recipients received stated: “These exceptional young people have been selected by their high school counselors, teachers, coaches and club sponsors, not only for their achievements in academics, community service and extra-curricular activities, but also for their special character.”  

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It most definitely was an honor receiving a card from the Chamber announcing that I was being recognized at the dinner. Having done my best to take advantage of the opportunities available to me at HPHS - I’ve cooked there, slept there, spent 20 hours a day there in the past - it is especially rewarding to be recognized for making a difference. However, as much as I am in the “public eye” at school, there were an equal number of students who were being recognized for behind-the-scenes talents - some of whom’s names I did not even recognize! That’s when I realized that the point of the dinner wasn’t to get to participate in a cool video, nor to get your photos taken with your family - it was to recognize the big things and the small things, the achievements made during our tenure at HP. 

The dinner itself was an excellent event, the recommended dress code of business casual gave it the air of having some prestige while still allowing everyone to clamor about and enjoy themselves. For me, the highlight was hearing Highland Park High School Principal Brad Swanson’s remarks about each of the students. We all had to sit in a single row of chairs facing the audience while Principal Swanson read off a small paragraph about an individual, without announcing their name. We sat and played a guessing game of sorts between ourselves while waiting for our own biography to be read. In that twenty minutes, I learned things about friends I’ve had for twelve years, and learned things about friends that I hadn’t known for more than two hours.

I had two concrete takeaways from the event: a) it feels very good to be recognized every once in a while for hard work, and b) I’ve really taken for granted how lucky I am to live and work in a community that focuses so much on giving back, instead of taking for oneself. 

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