With the conclusion of the first semester of the school year, Leadership has announced the winners of a brand new award, the Compassionate Cougar Award. Picking four students, one from each grade, students have voted: The winners this fall are freshman Madison Watkins, sophomore Colbie Freese, junior Chloe Cheung, and senior Emilio Peñate. The winners were invited to a celebration for their award on December 6 in E9 with Leadership.
Senior and commissioner of Student Support and Recognition Board, Maya Carrasco, is one of the major contributors to the creation of this award. Just as the name describes, Student Support and Recognition Board is a new leadership board which focuses on putting spotlights and support on all members at Campolindo.
As a previous winner of the JM ‘iKind award’, Carrasco states that she modeled the Compassionate Cougar award after iKind. “This award like the iKind award encourages people to be more kind to others…yes, maybe it’s because they want something out of it, but in the long run…it’ll encourage people to just be nicer to each other.”
According to the Google Form for submissions, the Compassionate Cougar Award is “a way to recognize students in the Campolindo community who demonstrate empathy, kindness, and a passion to help others on an everyday basis.” Students and staff were prompted to submit the names of students with a brief description of why they deserved the award.
“Compassion is a deeper level of kindness,” Peñate said when asked about what it means to be compassionate. “Kindness is opening a door for someone, while being compassionate is helping someone in need.”
Cheung said, “I’m really honored and I find it empowering that people view me as a compassionate person and that they feel comfortable recognizing that…I see compassion not only as a one-way thing but as a mutual connection between two people.”
Freese added, “I’m very appreciative of leadership for creating this award and grateful to all of my friends for supporting me…Compassion means showing up and trying to be a hardworking, kind individual as much as possible.”
Watkins stated, “Earning this award makes me feel good about myself and gives me feedback to let me know that I’m doing the right thing to make others feel like they’re heard.”
