San Francisco celebrates African American honor roll students with special ceremony

San Francisco is honoring some of its brightest students of color with a special ceremony Thursday night.

For some, high school can mean high stress or high anxiety. But, for some it means high achievements. Some of those students are being recognized at San Francisco's African American Honor Roll Celebration.

Raoul Wallenberg High School senior Kamiah Brown is one of those students who worked hard to earn her high grades. "My cumulative GPA is a 3.81, but this semester I got a 4.0 weighted GPA," said Brown.

High expectations at home from a mom who was part cheerleader and part coach, putting her on the right path.

Brown says after one low grade in middle school she hasn't looked back. "Yes, I had to learn how to be a good student and try to program myself to become the student I am today," said Brown.

Aries Bedgood says he's excelled academically by embracing the challenges, even enjoying them. "Favorite subject, math. Challenging? Math.  Probably because of the curriculum I'm in, but I love it," said Bedgood.

He says after a rough start his GPA has trended up, setting him up his senior year at Wallenberg with a grade point average to be proud of. "It's looking good, it's looking good. 3.5 I'm blessed to have it, I've worked for it. I feel like I'm doing real good," said Bedgood.

The San Francisco Alliance of Black School Educators is sponsoring the honor roll as a way of recognizing some of the districts best and brightest students of color. 

"Because we want our students to know that they count, that they matter, and that education, education has always been a key to the African American community to for a better kind of living," said Virginia Marshall from SF Alliance of Black School Educators.

Brown is emceeing the gala affair, after already earning San Francisco NAACP's youth excellence award.

She applied to 24 colleges and universities and is hoping to go to Brown University next year.
 Now, the college acceptance letters are already starting to roll in. 

"I'm still hoping to hear from hear from my top colleges and the colleges I really want to go to,” said Brown. “But, I'm actually kind of happy that I do have one college in mind, St. John's. I got accepted to their honors program, so they gave me a $25,000 scholarship.”

Bedgood is also preparing for college next year, closer to home and with an ambitious path he's already laid out for himself. "San Jose State, I'm going to be majoring in psychology, become a psychiatrist," said Bedgood.

Thursday’s event isn't just for high school students. Kids from the 3rd grade through high school are being recognized for their academic achievements.