Whitney’s top academic students gathered in the cafeteria on Sept. 26 for the annual Academic Lunch. Those who had a 3.85 GPA or higher at the end of last semester were invited to a raffle and luncheon celebrating their academic excellence.

“The lunch is great idea because it shows that the school cares about our grades and that they want us to do good. By rewarding us with pizza and prizes, they are basically saying, ‘Good job and keep up the good work,’” Tyler Kim said.

Students who attended received a small water bottle with the Wildcat logo with three coupons inside. One gave a free pass for any foreign language homework assignment. Another was redeemable for a free daily work pass from a language arts class. And the last allowed the removal of a low-quiz score from the social science department. Students also got a slice of pizza and a raffle ticket.

Later on in the luncheon, prizes such as Whitney sweatpants, sweaters, T-shirts and lanyards were raffled off as well as two homecoming tickets. Towards the end they started raffling off whole boxes of pizza in order to get rid of the extras.

“I was super excited when I won a whole box of pizza. As they were reading off the numbers on the raffle ticket, I wasn’t expecting to win because there were so many people in there. It was kind of funny because when we were walking in, I stepped in front of my brother in the line so I got his raffle ticket and then I won. Let’s just say he wasn’t too happy,” Matthew Cameron said.

The lunch ended with a small speech from Principal Mrs. Debra Hawkins, congratulating the students on their academic achievements. Hawkins gave extra praise to those students who had been invited multiple times before.

by OLIVIA GRAHL