Academy Awards, formerly known as Mr. NDA, will take place on Saturday, December 2, at 7 p.m. in the NDA Auditorium.
The fourteen juniors and seniors announced last week on the Morning Show will compete for the crown of Mr. or Ms. NDA, a crown won last year by Julian Greendeer..
“I’m not sure if Julian will be back to crown this year’s winner. If he’s not, we hope he will send in a video,” said Mrs. Carolyn Brown, who helps plan the awards ceremony.
Greendeer won the show with his Rocky-themed act.
He also committed to play lacrosse at University of Detroit and won the award for Outstanding Senior during Senior Awards last year.
The show begins with contestants doing a formal walkout with their rampateer, then the talent portion starts, and the show concludes with a Q&A led by Mr. Matthew Schultz, IB coordinator and social studies teacher.
During the show, four top-secret student judges chosen by advisers planning the show, along with a panel of staff members, score the contestants individually without conferring or discussing with other judges.
Three “math people” tally the scores and have the arduous task of deciding the winner in case of a tie.
Contestants are scored on their formal wear entrance, their talent act and their response to the question asked during the Q&A.
Only juniors and seniors are eligible to be in the show, but the entire student body votes to decide the final 14 contestants. Freshmen and sophomores can put their names in a drawing to be rampateers.
The contestants for this year’s show are Michael Blake, Pablo Cuene, Dashel DeMarco, Cece DeRuyter, Daniel Gagan, Charlie Gerstner, Carson Glosny, Alaina Heesacker, Joe Hunt, Anthoy Lamm, Brady Laviolette, Stanley Smith, Henry Streckenbach and Sydney Whitehouse.
“I did not think I was going to be selected; I left my name in because I knew that, even if I did not expect to, it would be a great memory of high school if I did get picked,” said Hunt.
Since state for cross country just wrapped up, he hasn’t put much thought into his act.
“I am most excited to make an amazing memory and hopefully do something awesome with some of my friends out on that stage,” he added.
Show adviser Holly Hinch drew names of freshmen and sophomores interested in being rampateers on the Morning Show. They included Eva Dosh, Madison Siminski, Maddie Wied, Landon Korpal, Stella Starry, Brianna Flores, Tess Boeckman, Tommy Chosa, Ella Nowak, Ryah Wasilkoff, Mallori LaCourt, Jenny Frias, Addisyn Barker and Jonah Marzec.
Seniors who wanted to be emcees auditioned before a panel of staff members, who selected Lauren Witczak and Ben Wolcanski for the honorable task.
Men’s Wearhouse is supporting the show with reduced-rate rentals for tuxedos.
Other staff members involved in organizing the show are Frau Laaksonen, head of Student Government, Julie Campbell, Sarah VanGrunsven and Jake Gerlikovski, who organizes the technical aspects of the show.
