On March 9, senior Adia Lee was awarded the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Good Citizen award by MHS for her work in Piedmont’s Affinity Mentorship program, mentoring young girls in her community. Senior Macy Puckett won the PHS DAR Good Citizen award for both her work with the PHS consent workshop and expanding consent club to Piedmont Middle School.
According to the DAR, a non-profit centered on promoting patriotism and securing better education for children, the award is given to students who possess the qualities of dependability, service, leadership, and patriotism in their homes, schools, and communities.
“I feel pretty honored to have won this award,” Lee said.
Every school has the opportunity to award one student this honor, and this decision is made by teachers and staff at the school. Both PHS and MHS select one student from each school to be given this award each year.
“We get the winner through talking to a bunch of teachers as well as the counselors,” PHS counselor Christopher Hartford said. “The awards can be really hard to nominate because a lot of people can fall under the categories. I think [Lee’s] nomination was related to helping her community, leadership within her community, and helping others,” Hartford said.
Lee is very involved in the Affinity Mentorship Program, and said she was nominated for her passion and participation.
“There aren’t any specific roles in [Affinity Mentorship]. It’s kind of just up to you how involved you want to be,” she said.
Lee has previously mentored biracial East Asian groups and taught elementary schoolers about bias. Having lost her father herself, she currently mentors a girl who also lost her father.
“There’s not a lot of people with single parents and have [also] lost someone in this district, so just knowing that someone is in the same situation as you and can relate can really help,” Lee said.
Lee’s MHS award automatically entered her into a county-wide competition, in which the winner is selected through a timed write.
“Every year, they send out invitations for school counselors to nominate a student who can write an essay and talk about what being a good citizen means to them, and then they select an overall winner. My timed write] was about fighting injustice and recognizing flaws within the country,” Lee said.
