Certificate of Excellence

I'm adding a disclaimer right up front that I'm going into proud mom mode and am going to brag on my kid. :-)

Back in March right before spring break, Jake came home from school and told me how that day in band his teacher had written a bunch of character traits on the board....team player, dedication, commitment, consistency, hard working, most improved and others. He asked the 40+ kids in the class to vote for which student they felt exemplified those traits. Sounded kind of cool, but I quickly forgot about it. About a week after he got back from break, it was announced to the band class that Jake had received the most votes and got "the award". He wasn't really sure what the award was, but was pretty excited.

We then received an invitation a few weeks ago to an awards night at Jake's school and figured it must have something to do with this award in band. Tonight all the pieces finally came together. One student per grade level was recognized for achieving excellence in each of the following: math, social studies, language arts, science, all the electives, sports or for earning a 4.0 GPA. Jake had been voted by his peers as the 6th grade recipient for band. Pretty cool honor. One, because drumming is so important to
him and two, he was voted as the most deserving of this award by his peers, not by teachers who as adults "get" what he's had to overcome. He was chosen not because he's the best drummer or the most popular kid in the class, but because of his attitude and hard work. Kids, many that didn't know him before this year and probably don't know his history, see him coming to class everyday putting in 110% effort. They see him not give up or quit when he got last chair for the percussion line. (The kids tryout for chair positions and he came in 4th out of 4 kids, it was pretty hard on him.) Receiving any award would have been wonderful, but to see him honored for something that means so much to him was pretty awesome. Can't wait to see what lies ahead for him.