Ours was so long it was crazy. The awards given out are local awards (minority, female, and need based or only for students attending an in-state school - not one my son could apply for). The sponsors of the awards all gave long speeches. Then they recognized all the kids going into the military. Then the departmental award. My son was nominated for 3 but they didn’t mention who was nominated only who won, which was very political. One girl won almost every award given!
After all that they called each student up and put a big picture up with all the scholarships they had received from the colleges they applied to and any others they listed on a form we turned in; the college they are attending; if they were National Merit Scholars or finalists; If they got an engineering award; and magna, summa or cum laude. They were handed an envelope with their cords for graduation in it.
They did not put up if a student had anything special, like being accepted to the Honors College or in my son’s case being accepted to the Early Admission to Vet School program. I wish they had done this.
It really was a slow evening, 3 hours long for my son being up there for less than a minute. Sigh.