Story by Elisa Figueroa, Staff Writer

SDA took home two awards at the ROP Recognition Ceremony at the San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE) on May 18. Screen printing teacher Caroline Ceseña won the San Dieguito District’s Distinguished Teacher Award and senior Veronica Pryor won the district’s Distinguished Student Award.

ROP classes include all applied tech, culinary, as well as some health classes. Teachers can nominate their students as well as other teachers. “Someone arbitrarily volunteers you and it goes through a panel [at SDCOE] and the panel chooses who to recognize,” said Ceseña.

Ceseña said that SDA is not usually recognized. “I was surprised and honored to represent SDA and North County,” said Ceseña.

Photography teacher Susan Coppock nominated both Ceseña and Pryor. “My teacher nominated me and I wrote a half page paper on what photography meant to me,” said Pryor. She has been taking photo classes all of high school and explained that she didn’t do a specific activity to receive recognition. “I was pretty much myself…I did what I was supposed to do and I helped people in photo [class].”

“I was surprised …I was happy…I was speechless and Coppock was super excited for me,” said Pryor.