Earlier this month, about 500 students who attend New York City's High School for Public Service-Heroes of Tomorrow gathered in their school's auditorium for an assembly filled with cheering, clapping, smiling, and call-outs for more.

The only thing making it not a pep rally? The absence of any references to sports.  

And the fact that the cheerleaders were popular teachers praising the school's culture of academic success and pointing out individual student achievements, with the question "So how do you get to college?" projected in foot-high letters onto a drop down screen.

Part of the answer to that question: Vocabulary.com. We were on hand to confer our Champions' Banner on HSPS students in honor of their monthly Vocabulary.com leaderboard win. Since signing onto the game, HSPS had quickly climbed the Vocabulary.com school leaderboards, winning daily totals on a regular basis and then earning the big green banner for February. 

As students at the more than 11,000 schools that have signed on to play Vocabulary.com know, the game is a great way to prepare for college. A richer vocabulary not only helps you succeed on entrance exams like the SAT, but will help you write, think, and speak with precision and fluency, skills that are directly related to academic success.

But at HSPS, students weren't thinking only of academic success. They were celebrating achievement and community. They weren't just playing Vocabulary.com to learn words. They were having fun. We could see that the whole school was taking part in the game and feeling the effects of the victory together.

As is usually the case with schools engaged in fierce Vocabulary.com play, of course, a few high scoring students led the march towards victory. At HSPS, Nicole Caster, Anaiah Davis, Tiana Dixon, Jair Farciert, Rebecca Joseph, Keine Hospedales, Ana Minaya, and Shanine Mondesir were honored for earning more than a million points in the game. (Eleventh graders are pictured here.) After the ceremony was over, one student even recalled a night he played both on his computer and his phone. 

Just think what he and the others at HSPS will be able to do with the Vocabulary.com app!