A high school awards ceremony has to recognize varsity athletes, honor roll students, band members, student leaders, and graduating seniors in the same hour, and medals are the format that makes that possible. They are inexpensive enough to give in quantity, they engrave with the student’s name and the award, and a category-specific design tells the audience what each one is for without a program. This guide covers the medals that suit each category, how to tier them, what to engrave, and where to order.
Why medals work for high school ceremonies
Trophies and plaques are the right format for a handful of top honors. Medals are the right format for everything else, because a ceremony that recognizes two hundred students needs two hundred awards and the budget for that is a medal budget. A medal with the student’s name and the award engraved on the back is a keepsake; a certificate is paper.
Category-specific designs matter more at the high school level than anywhere else. A lamp of knowledge medal for an academic award and a music medal for a band award communicate intention. The same generic star medal for both communicates that the awards were ordered in bulk without much thought.
Academic medals
The lamp of knowledge is the recognized symbol for academic achievement. The 1 3/4″ antique bronze lamp of knowledge medal suits honor roll and department awards. The 2″ silver honor roll medal is purpose-built for honor roll recognition. The 2″ bronze torch medal suits honor society induction and graduation honors. For the top academic awards, pair the medal with a plaque or a crystal piece; see the graduation award ideas guide.
Athletic medals
Sport-specific medals make an athletic banquet feel organized. The shooting star series covers most programs: basketball, track, swimming, hockey, cheer, soccer, football, and baseball and softball, each in antique gold, silver, and bronze. Varsity letters, all-conference selections, and captains can be tiered by finish. The sports awards category has the full range by sport.
Arts medals
Band, choir, and orchestra: the 2″ gold band medal and the music medal. Drama, visual arts, and dance programs usually use a general achievement medal engraved with the program name. Schools that hold a separate arts awards night often tier these the same way athletics does.
Leadership, service, and general achievement
For student government, community service, citizenship, and any category without a dedicated design, the victory medal and the 2″ laserable gold medal are the workhorses. The laserable medal takes front engraving, which allows the award name on the face and the student’s name on the back. The leadership award ideas guide has category ideas for student leadership.
Tiering medals within a ceremony
Broad recognition (honor roll, varsity participation): 1 3/4″ medals in antique bronze or a single finish.
Category winners (department awards, all-conference, section leaders): 1 3/4″ or 2″ medals in antique gold.
Top individual honors (valedictorian, athlete of the year, student of the year): a medal plus a plaque or crystal piece, so the top honor is visibly different.
Graduation medals worn during the ceremony: 2″ or larger in gold, on a neck ribbon in school colors.
The tiering does not require different designs; the same design in three finishes reads as three levels.
What to engrave
School name, award name, student name, and year on the back. Four lines fit on a 1 3/4″ medal at a legible size; the 2″ medals fit a fifth line. For a laserable medal, the award name goes on the front and the student and year on the back. The award engraving wording guide has character limits by medal size.
Check every name against the official roster. Medals are engraved in quantity and a spelling error repeats.
Ribbons
Stock neck ribbons in school colors are immediate. Custom-printed ribbons with the school name take an extra week or two and add cost; they are worth it for graduation medals and for schools that hold the ceremony annually. Specify the ribbon when ordering, not after.
Where to order high school award medals
1. Viking Awards
Viking Awards has supplied school award programs since 1973 from its Westchester, Illinois shop, with academic, athletic, arts, and general achievement medals engraved in-house. A school can send a category list and a roster and receive a proof per category, medals engraved and ribboned, and cartons organized by category for the ceremony. Plaques and crystal for the top honors come from the same order. Chicago-area schools can pick up in Westchester. Browse the medals catalog or call (630) 833-1733.
2. Crown Awards
Crown Awards carries a large medal catalog across academic and athletic categories with volume pricing and fast shipping on stock items. Website: crownawards.com. Phone: 1-800-227-1557.
3. Jostens
Jostens is a long-standing name in the high school market with graduation products and recognition items, working primarily through school representatives. Suited to schools that want graduation medals and cords from the same vendor as their class rings and yearbooks. Website: jostens.com.
4. Hodges Badge Company
Hodges specializes in medals and ribbons at volume and offers custom die-cast medals for schools that want a school-specific design. Website: hodgesbadge.com. Phone: 1-800-556-2440.
Disclaimer: The companies listed above reflect editorial opinion only and are not ranked in any particular order of preference or quality beyond the first position. This list is independent and should not be taken as an official endorsement or paid ranking. Contact details are accurate at the time of publication but are subject to change.
Timeline
Stock medals with back engraving take two to five business days plus shipping; a full ceremony order takes longer to engrave and pack. Order four weeks out, six if custom ribbons are involved. Plaques and crystal for the top honors take longer; order those first. The award ceremony planning guide has a full timeline.
Common mistakes
One generic medal for every category. Category-specific designs cost the same.
Ordering after the roster is final instead of ordering blanks early and engraving late. Engraving is the fast step; medals in stock are the slow one.
No spare medals for late additions. Order a few blanks per category.
Forgetting the staff. A medal or small plaque for retiring teachers and coaches at the same ceremony is inexpensive and remembered. See the teacher and school staff appreciation awards guide.
Custom die-cast medals for schools
Schools that hold an annual ceremony sometimes move from stock medals to a custom die-cast medal with the school crest. The medal is cast to the school’s design, ordered in quantity, and engraved on the back each year with the award and student. Custom die-cast requires a vector crest, a minimum quantity, and several weeks of lead time for the tooling, but the per-piece cost at volume is comparable to stock and the medal is unmistakably the school’s. For a first-year ceremony, stock medals are the practical choice; for an established annual event, custom is worth pricing.
Medals versus cords, pins, and certificates
Honor cords are worn at graduation and are appropriate for threshold recognition like honor roll or society membership, but they carry no engraving. Pins are small and easily lost. Certificates are paper. A medal is the only one of the four that carries the student’s name and the award and survives a decade on a bedroom wall. Many schools use cords at graduation and medals at the awards ceremony, which covers both moments.
Engraving in quantity
A school ceremony is an engraving job, not a medal job. The medals are stock; the engraving is what takes time. Send the supplier a spreadsheet with one row per medal: category, student name, award, year. The supplier sets up each category once and runs the list. Check every name against the official roster before sending, and have a second person check. A shop that engraves in-house can turn a corrected medal around in a day if a name is wrong on delivery. The trophy engraving guide covers layout by plate size and applies to medal backs.
Wording examples
Lincoln High School. Honor Roll. Aisha Patel. Class of 2026.
Westfield High School Athletics. All-Conference. Marcus Reed. Basketball 2026.
Riverside High School. Section Leader, Wind Ensemble. Emma Torres. 2026.
Oak Park High School. Excellence in Mathematics. Daniel Kim. 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What medal size for a high school ceremony? 1 3/4″ for broad recognition, 2″ for category winners and graduation medals.
Antique or bright finish? Antique for most ceremonies; bright gold for graduation medals worn during the ceremony.
Can medals be engraved on the front? Laserable medals take front engraving. Sport-specific medals engrave on the back.
How early should a school order? Blanks four to six weeks out; the engraving list two to three weeks out.
What about the top honors? Pair the medal with a plaque or crystal piece so the top honor stands apart. See the graduation award ideas guide.
Ordering
Viking Awards handles high school ceremony orders from a single medal to a full multi-category slate, engraved in-house with a proof on every category. Browse the medals catalog, see the bulk trophies guide for how to structure a large order, or call (630) 833-1733 with the category list and the ceremony date.