A new rumor is spreading around campus and it happens to be about academics. Many have heard this rumor of a new group on campus called the Royal Lancers, yet no one seems to understand its purpose. The Royal Lancers happen to be a highly-selective group of 20 students from the senior class who have the highest GPA’s of the school.

The Royal Lancers were created by Dr. Steitz from a program he encountered at his previous school.  This program of recognizing high academic achievers has been implemented in many schools and is now in ours as well.

“It’s based on the F.A.C.E. program,” Steitz said. “They have the top GPAs from the class of 2013.”

The Royal Lancers will serve as academic role models, able to help younger students navigate their freshman year.

“The Royal Lancers will work as liaisons to counselors and go to middle schools. They will give a perspective on AP and honors classes, college applications and give a student perspective on how to use Naviance,” Steitz said.

These selected students will be celebrated for their excellent accomplishments. There will be profiles of themselves hung in the office, and hopefully the community, for everyone to read.

“There aren’t many avenues to celebrate the academic successes here and I wanted an avenue to do that,” Steitz said.

When initially deciding to create this program, one of the toughest parts was choosing the students who would be selected for it. Steitz and others involved in the process found there were so many qualified academic students, it was hard to decide what the limit would be on the program.

Numerous students may wonder why they were not chosen to be a part of this group, but the bitter truth is the competition was so tough one had to have a GPA of around 4.6 to be considered.

“The hardest part of this program was sticking to the top twenty and capping it there,” Steitz said. “After the top twenty, many students still had above a 4.0 GPA.”

This proves how hard students at Carlsbad High work, and how in-depth the various courses are at the school. The Royal Lancer program allows us to celebrate and praise these students on their tremendous achievements.