The tradition of Academy Awards will be back and take place in the NDA Auditorium on December 2 at 7 p.m. 

“Academy Awards was brought to NDA by Carolyn Brown. She worked at a school in Chicago and they did it there,” said Julie Campbell who works alongside Brown, Holly Hinch, Sarah VanGrunsven and Jennie Laaksonen to organize and run the show.

Academy Awards was first called Most Valuable Person (MVP) for one year since the Packers had just won the Super Bowl. It later changed to Mr. NDA, a talent show specifically for boys, and  then Academy Awards, which is for boys and girls. 

The show used to take place on Tuesday nights during Spring Week with no specific seating where everything was a live performance with no videos like there are now. 

“Things were added over time, such as the videos to the intros and talents,” shared Campbell. 

Winners from Mr. NDA would go on to participate in Mr. Green Bay and almost every time, the winner of Mr. NDA would win Mr. Green Bay. 

Other schools started to hear about what NDA was doing and also wanted to get involved.

“Mrs. Brown and myself went to these other schools and talked to their student government about how to get it started and run it,” added Campbell. 

The student body will elect only juniors and seniors to participate in the show. 

The juniors and seniors were allowed to remove their names from the ballot before 3:30 on Friday, Oct. 20. 

“The first vote for the Top 40 will be on Monday, October 23, and the second vote for the final 15 contestants will be on Tuesday, October 24,” said Hinch. 

Freshmen and sophomores who would like to be rampeteers and walk out contestants on the 28-year-old ramp will be able to put their names into a drawing that will occur live on the Morning Show.