Air Force Acceptance Highlights Senior Ceremony

76 seniors were honored for academic, artistic, athletic, and community service excellence at the senior awards ceremony on May 19 in the CPAC.

Traditional departmental awards in art, video production, photography, drama, English, Publications, Leadership, math, sportsmanship, science, social sciences, technical education, and each of the world languages were presented by department chairs and subject teachers.

California Scholarship Federation lifetime members were also honored for academic excellence and National Merit scholars were honored for high PSAT and SAT scores.

This year Patrick Timmons was honored for his acceptance into the Air Force Academy. Lieutenant Jorge Barriere of the U.S. Air Force gave a speech explaining the significance of Timmons’s acceptance.

“I think one of the unique things that happened this year – it doesn’t happen every year, but it has happened – is the Air Force Academy coming and doing a presentation on behalf of Patrick Timmons,” said head counselor Jake Donohoe, who, along with the rest of the counseling department, organized the ceremony. “I think it’s a really great thing that they do, sending someone to these individual ceremonies to individual high schools, to talk about how meaningful it is to be a part of the Air Force Academy and what that brings to Patrick and to everybody else.”

According to Donohoe, a Campolindo student is accepted to the Air Force Academy and subsequently honored at the senior awards ceremony only once every 4 to 5 years.

Donohoe said the purpose of the ceremony was “to acknowledge the amazing things that kids are doing. I think the fact is that Campo kids are not just doing great things in the classroom, but they’re also doing great things outside the classroom. And this is an opportunity for us to showcase those who go above and beyond.”

Nikki Ahazie and Sterling Strother were awarded the CIF Scholar Athlete awards. Additionally, scholarships from the community service organizations Kiwanis, the Lion’s Club, and Moraga Rotary and in honor of Tim McInerney, were awarded.

Hana Sun, a winner of the sportsmanship award given in memoriam of former Campolindo athletic director Bob Wilson, was surprised to receive the honor. “I thought it was fun to see how accomplished our whole class is,” Sun added.