Students from Pleasant Grove High School showed how grateful they are for the effort their teachers put into their education this academic year during the school’s annual Teacher Appreciation celebration.  

Thuong Pham, a sophomore in the Advancement Via Individual Determination program, said that this school year she feels proud of herself because of all the hard work she put into her education, but values the work her teachers put in as well.

“I’ve learned that I’m a lot stronger than I thought I would be due to me taking harder classes,” said Pham. She said that being consistent in your school work is important even though school’s challenges can get increasingly difficult.

“Honestly, the end of the year was pretty tough with multiple projects at once but I just sort of tackled everything one step at a time,” said Pham.  

She said every student should be proud of completing the school year and overcoming the barriers that were in their way. “I’m proud to have done more things out of my comfort zone, (which allowed) me to become better.”

But Pham said that while students should appreciate all the hard work they put in, they also should applaud the work their teachers did to educate them. 

“Every student should be grateful for their (teachers),” she said.

Pham said that every student should learn from their experiences during the previous school year to improve in the future. 

“One of my lessons I would take is to balance my work and personal life and I would also recommend other students to do so also,” she said. 

Harpreet Kaur (not related), a senior at PGHS, said many students did not feel proud at the end of the year, which she attributed to a lack of effort on the students’ part. 

“I think that in many of my classes, there were many students that were disappointed with their grades or how they did overall in their school year. Many students have slacked off near the end of their school year causing their grades to go down or many just did not care.” 

Gauri Khan, a junior, said that she is excited to continue on to the next school year with better preparations. 

“I believe that this summer break is highly needed for myself and others, allowing us to have a better comeback next year,” she said. “Many students do not do any extra preparations over summer or make them become comfortable with the school year material causing them to struggle in the start. When students do not have a better start of the school year it causes them to struggle bringing those grades up.”