On December 30th, the sophomores gathered in the Zhentao Lecture Hall like they do every Wednesday morning for the last Assembly of the semester – presenting each student who had spoken across the year with a certificate of achievement. Across the semester,the sophomores hadheard about different social issues (such as disparity in education, women’s access to tampons and pads, and the aid of neurodivergent children), the clubs dedicated to solving such issues, as well as the different passions and interests of various students across the grade. Whether it be Sean Liu’s boxing match with a teacher, Chloe Ng’s reading of her spoken-word poem, or a presentation of Elaine Zhang’s T-shirt-and-design process, each Assembly speech displayed each student’s individual talents and capabilities.

Thus, to commemorate a semester worth of Assembly showcases, the awards were announced to the familiar awarding music early Wednesday morning. All the speakers walked up on stage to receive their certificates. After a round of applause, they returned to their seats, but the memories of a semester’s worth of performances and presentations of talent lingered on regardless. We look forward to seeing more students speak on an even broader range of talents, interests, and extracurriculars in the coming semester.

(Written by Mimi Yang Pictures by Tiger Ding Supervised by Jialong Liu)