Just four days after a Prom Grand March rendezvous at the school, Cannon Falls High School students and the public once again filed into the school auditorium. While prom celebrated the end of the school year, this May 7 event honored something else: students’ academic accomplishments.
Each year, with 2025 being the twenty-second, the Academic Awards and Scholarship Program recognizes high-performing Cannon Falls students in both academic and athletic fields. The ceremony also provides an opportunity for local scholarship donors to award recipients personally.
Cannon Falls High School principal Tim Hodges initiated the event with brief opening remarks, then yielded the podium to donors who presented scholarship certificates directly to their senior recipients. The awards, while all contributing to the future education of graduating seniors, ranged significantly in value. By far, the largest sum was from the United States Army ROTC scholarship – awarded to Wyatt Mosser – which clocked an awesome sum of over $200,000.
After a short intermission, the presentation of department awards commenced. The purpose of the awards was to recognize students who demonstrated effort and capability in certain academic areas, like math, language arts, and science. Each department was represented by one high school teacher, one of whom was geometry instructor Dylan Salley, who presented the math department awards.
In an interview with the Lantern, Salley elaborated on the process by which students were selected to receive recognition. “[Teachers] compiled a list of students who… showed exemplary effort, growth, resilience, and poise,” Salley explained. After further narrowing down the student list, he said, teachers ultimately chose students who were focused, helpful, respectful, and willing to learn.
The department awards were followed by academic letter awards, which were given to students who maintained a grade point average of at least 3.33 (equating to a B+ letter grade) for the first three quarters of the school year. Junior recipient Cara Erickson expressed she was “very” honored to receive her academic letter, which rewarded her academic performance in school.
To conclude the program, various administrative staff awarded other academic and athletic awards. One of which was the Hall of Fame award, which was given to Cameron Addington and Anna Ritz.
