Gold Award Winners
Porschia Adler ’16 Nicolette Alexander ’16 Oren Alon ’16 Alex Barnett ’16 Paige Cornelius ’16 Lindsay Emi ’16 Gbolahan Fajolu ’16 Honour Fottrell ’16 Rachel Furash ’16 Alyssa Gengos ’16 Alexander Gold ’16 Catherine Grey ’16 Caitlin Hogan ’16 Kathryn Kimes ’16 Callie Kutasi ’16 Alex Lashever ’16 Maxwell Latham ’16 Alexis Leoni ’16 Jill Levy ’16 Evelyn Montgomery ’15 Zachary Oschin ’16 Abigail Rodgers ’16 Brenden Rodriquez ’16 Jamie Schecter ’16 Isabella Sprague ’16 Silver Award Winners
Anthony Aguirre ’17 Alanna Barron ’17 Tyler Barron ’17 Zoe Beckman ’17 Alec Berger ’16 Jessica Blumberg ’16 Elizabeth Boock ’17 Raymond Boucher ’16 Alejandro Campillo ’17 Maria Chernitskaya ’16 Michael Cohen ’17 Kiersten Crouse ’16 Olusayo Denloye ’16 Sonam Dhameja ’16 Jillian Ecoff ’16 Sophia Frazier ’17 Brandon Garber ’16 Damian Gardiner ’17 Elliot Gilliam ’16 Molly Gross ’17 Alanna Hamill ’17 Jordyn Horwitz ’16 Spencer Hylen ’17 Grace Jacobson ’16
Why Duke of Edinburgh? By Porschia Adler ’16
SINCE ITS FOUNDING IN 1956, the prestigious and
Rachel Jacobson ’17 Chloe Kearis De Logi ’16 Kathryn Kolpin ’16 McCloy Leonard ’17 Mara Lorin ’17 Rebecca Luner ’17 Hayley Ratzan-Wank ’17 Jack Salamati ’17 Gaia Shoham ’16 Alexandra Stiller ’17 Madeline Stutz ’16 Katarina Ulich ’17 Samir Venkatesh ’17 Samuel Villeneuve ’17 Evan Visher ’17 Liza Wagner ’17 James Walsh ’17 Ethan Williams ’17 Nicholas Zakari ’17 Bronze Award Winners
Nathan Alexander ’18 Matthew Bahar ’18 Jansen Baier ’18 Noah Ben-David ’18 Alec Berger ’16 Zak Boyce ’18 Jake Bubman ’17 Calvin Chen ’18 Isabella Cohen ’18 Ben Davidorf ’18 Daniel Delgado ’17 Ella Diab ’18 Kayla Dworsky ’18 Sarah Eicher ’17 Brian Evans ’18 Michael Fang ’18 Persia Fardad-Finn ’18 Cailan Feingold ’17
Thomas Finello ’18 Vincent Finello ’18 Ethan Ganouna ’17 Emily Garber ’18 Iayn Gates ’18 Ellis Glickman ’18 Joseph Gunnarsson ’18 Jack Hall ’17 Sarina Hamer ’18 Andrea Harvey ’18 Alexandra Helfand ’18 Chase Hirt ’18 Chloe Hodgson ’18 Melanie Hoffmann ’18 Connor Hogan ’18 Hank Kaplan ’18 Kate Kaplan ’18 Jared Kelly ’18 Gavin Kester ’16 Dylan Lashever ’18 Jack Leach ’18 Charlotte Leonetti ’18 Ashley Leoni ’18 Landon Levitt ’18 Gavin Levy ’18 Jamie Lipman ’16 Zhanqin Liu ’17 Tommy Maher ’17 Matthew Malcolm ’18 Yusuf Mohamed ’18 Anthony Pineci ’18 Hannah Rosenberg ’18 Cassidy Samovar ’18 Sam Schur ’18 Ryan Singsank ’18 Charlotte Thompson ’18 Sabrina Urban ’18 Hanna Waldman ’18 Maya Wazana ’18
time-honored Duke of Edinburgh Award program has sought to inspire as well as empower youth to develop new interests and take on new challenges. With three levels of achievement – bronze, silver and gold – the program consists of the following categories: Community Service, Skills, Physical Recreation, Adventurous Journey, and Residential Project (gold award level only). As one progresses through the award levels, he or she must dedicate more and more time to each of the categories mentioned above. For example, the silver award level requires six months of dedication to each of the categories, while the gold level requires 12 months of dedication in addition to the residential project – a five-day/ four-night project aimed at broadening one’s experience working and living with others toward a common goal. The award is clearly multi-dimensional and quite demanding, yet the following question still remains: why do students take on such a rigorous award program? As to why Viewpoint students ultimately choose to take part in the Duke of Edinburgh program, the reasons are diverse. Some students see the program as a challenge to conquer, while others view it as an opportunity to expand upon an activity they just developed an interest in – whether it be in community service, sports, or the arts. Personally, however, as a gold medal recipient, I find that there is one principal reason as to why so many students at Viewpoint participate in the Duke of Edinburgh Award program: these are activities that we would pursue even without recognition. As Head of Upper School Alan Howie notes, “The Duke of Edinburgh program is a lifestyle,” a lifestyle that goes beyond the scope of Viewpoint – and one which most of us value and follow. The Duke of Edinburgh Award is not simply an award to recognize one’s achievement of a finite task; rather, it is an award to recognize one’s dedication to an altruistic, healthy, and fulfilling way of life.
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