Camas High School’s (CHS) Pride Inside Award is given to students who show excellence among their peers. Despite its importance, it is not a widely announced achievement in the school.
The Pride Inside Award looks for students who show academic achievement, display positive traits attributed with their character, who are good role models to their peers, and who take initiative to stand up and become a leader.
After the student receives the award, they are allowed to freely announce the fact to anyone: family, friends, staff members, and even college applications. However, those who earn the award are not officially announced in the school.
Senior Naomi Costa’s senior project is to create a board that announces the Pride Inside Award winners for each month, which is located in the main entrance. As she spent more time on her project, she realized how unknown the Pride Inside Award was within CHS.
“My board is the only way to tell the public about the winners each month,” Costa said.
Because of the lack of information about what the Pride Inside Award is, there are awarded students who are unaware of what it means. When junior Miria Rodriguez received the award, she was also initially confused by what purpose it served.
“It was really shocking [when I got the award], but I also didn’t know what the award was for,” Rodriguez said. “While I now understand what it’s for, it’s a very small thing [that people know about].”
The low awareness of the Pride Inside Award brings up the question of whether or not it should be more publicized within CHS.
“I ask that question every month when we pull kids here to award their plaques to them,” Associate Principal Darci Jones said. “It would be great to figure out some systems [to] help get the word out there a little bit more broadly.”
“I think that people should know about the concept of it, but not make it a big deal,” freshman Viet Nguyen said.
For a student to achieve the award, teachers and staff nominate two students from every grade level each month. Staff then votes on the students they believe should be awarded, and the two students with the highest votes win the award.
Students who win the award are given a plaque with their name and school year. Attached to the plaque is a letter detailing why they were chosen, along with a short paragraph written by the staff member who nominated them.
“There’s a lot of things that our students deserve to be recognized for, other than just their academics,” Brandy Reed, who oversees the Pride Inside Award nominations, said.
