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Caledonia alumnus honoured with Governor General’s award

The academic medal is given to the student with the highest grades in their graduating year
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Chris Simms receiving his Governor General’s Academic Medal, and Caledonia Senior Secondary school’s principal Keith Axelson. (Photo courtesy Keith Axelson)

Chris Simms is Caledonia Secondary School’s 2022 recipient of the Governor General’s Academic Medal, awarded to the top graduating student at each high school in Canada.

Simms graduated this past June and is pursuing a degree in computer science at the University of British Columbia.

“Honestly, I feel pretty honoured to have received it,” said Simms of his award. “I recognize that I worked hard through high school, but it’s still definitely an honour to have received that from the principal himself.”

Principal of Caledonia Senior Secondary School Keith Axelson awarded Simms the medal and spoke highly of his former student.

“Chris was an excellent student, very conscientious, very mature for his age,” said Axelson.

“He was one of the leaders in our inaugural season of robotics last year, and was kind of the lead programmer who actually taught himself a couple of coding languages.”

Lord Dufferin, Canada’s third Governor General, created the academic medals in 1873. The medals are awarded annually to the student graduating with the highest average from a high school or approved college and university program.

As for celebrating his award, Simms is relaxing while he has the opportunity.

“I’m home for reading break. So, I’m just taking the time to relax, and spend some time with friends and family before I get right back into school.”

The medal features an image of Canada’s current Governor General, Mary Simon, on one side and her coat of arms on the other. It is presented with a personalized certificate signed by the Governor General.

“One teacher I would bring up would be Mrs. Axelson at Caledonia, she was my pre-calculus and physics teacher,” said Simms. “She just really game me the tools to succeed and really helped my learning throughout. And she was one of the teachers that ran the robotics club for us. I’m just really grateful for her participation in all that.”

Past winners of the Governor General’s Academic Medal include former Prime Ministers Pierre Trudeau and Kim Campbell, and Premiers Tommy Douglas, Robert Bourassa and Robert Stanfield.

“The biggest piece of advice I think we can give any of our kids is to put your best foot forward,” said Axelson.

“It’s great that someone’s able to win an award like this, but we also try to emphasize for everybody that success means different things to different people. You should celebrate your individual successes, however they look.”

READ MORE: Terrace robotics program alumni pursue degrees at UBC