CAMDEN, N.J. – Seniors from Camden Academy Charter High School (CACHS), celebrated National College Signing Day on Monday, May 6th by being recognized by their classmates and teachers as well as serving as role models and examples to elementary and middle school students.
During a whole school assembly, seniors each had the opportunity to introduce themselves and announce their intended college destination among the cheers of the underclassmen.
National College Signing Day — traditionally held on May 1st — is an important date for high school seniors because it is the official date by which students must select the college or university the will attend, according to CACHS College Transitional Counselor Kyra O’Brien. “Signing Day has become an unofficial holiday, as students use this date to announce their future academic plans,” she said.
The school assembly keynote speaker, Camden City Councilwoman and CACHS Alumna (Class of 2007), Felisha Reyes Morton, told the college-bound students how this was a day for them to be recognized for their hard work. “It is a sign to your family, this city, and the world fo your promise and potential,” she said.
O’Brien added that National College Signing Day has been instrumental in encouraging a college going culture “Especially among first generation students,” she said.
That encouragement for the high school seniors was spread through the lower grades as the college-bound students paraded through Camden’s Pride Elementary School in the Cramer Hill section of the city while the elementary students cheered, clapped, and waved banners they made with congratulating and encouraging messages to the senior class.
The senior class, led by the school’s drumline, paraded around the Camden’s Promise Charter School building as middle school students cheered them on.
According to O’Brien, the CACHS Class of 2019 will have about 65 students intending to enroll in a four year college, 45 in a two year college, 24 in a trade school, five plan to enter the workforce, and two will enter into the military.
“You have an opportunity to change your lives,” Reyes Morton told the students, “and to redefine what it is to be from Camden.”
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