It’s time for the tradition of recognizing seniors who exemplify and embody each of the school’s core values. The ICSEEU awards represent a series of six different types of fundamental principles that the school holds. They recognize the genuine character of an individual rather than their academic achievements.

The six people who get chosen for each award will be represented on banners around the campus, district, and community; just like the traditional top 10. The staff and student body of the school will nominate senior students for these awards throughout this week using this link. 

“What we wanted to do when we opened this building was we had the idea that, you know how we hang the top ten banners and it’s a big deal?,” Assistant Principal Sharon Kelley said. “We are constantly honoring our academic achievements, but we wanted to honor our character of our students and who’s graduating from us and who’s leaving us with great character.” 

Each letter in ICSEEU stands for a word that has a greater meaning to it. The students selected for each award have demonstrated genuine embodiment of that particular word.

Integrity: To have a strong moral compass and to ALWAYS stay true to it, even when no one is watching. Always stand by your morals and go beyond what is expected.

Creativity: To be unique in ideas and character:  to build a strong foundation. Express yourself through authenticity and uniqueness.

Service: Striving toward working for the good of ALL; willingly offering your time and devotion for the betterment of another person. Put others above yourself and give back to those who helped you.

Empathy:  To CONNECT with each other to give us common ground in order to allow us to be truly heard and listened to and never let someone take the battle alone.

Excellence: Setting ourselves apart from other schools: going above and beyond to achieve greatness.  Always strive to reach your full potential.

Unity: Standing together regardless of the circumstances. We are all in this together.

Based on these definitions, a student will have the option to nominate themselves, without campaigning for nominations. Multiple submissions on the form for different core values are allowed. 

“If people don’t know all the things, so very often for the creativity award, for example, we have kids who outside of this building do amazing things with our community theater programs, our community art programs, that aren’t always advertised here on campus,” Kelley said. “If their friends don’t all know about it or our building doesn’t always know about it, they may nominate themselves just to share the creative things they’re doing.” 

It is required to provide specific reasons on why the student chosen for an award deserves to win that particular award. The finalists will be selected based on the quality of information provided in the form, and how many times they were chosen by different students who nominated for them.

“When we come down to tied situations that are not so clear, we have a panel, the panelists are varied by department, and varied by position on campus and varied by a mix of both men and women,” Kelley said. “We have a rubric to then determine who the winner is for that character trait.”