Celebrating senior students

[Nate Laverdure]

In the midst of a lot of great conversation about celebrating students by nominating them for the Dean's List Finalist Award, what's being lost is the idea that many excellent students are already being celebrated by their teams. This is one of the most important things leaders can do to develop and sustain a high-functioning team.

If your team doesn't already celebrate excellent seniors, you should seriously consider making it a priority. Here's a list of what some other teams do:

Public statement of congratulations

• Website post
• Video
• Press release
• ChiefDelphi post

Celebratory event

• Banquet
• Party, social
• Picnic, luncheon, cookout, potluck dinner
• Open house, demonstration, pep rally
• Pool party
• Sponsor appreciation night
• Trip

Team awards

• Superlatives
• Certificates of participation, achievement
• Paper plate awards
• Perpetual awards
• Gifts (bonus if personalized)

• Letters
• Pins, medals
• Trophies
• Plaques
• Shirt
• Something from the build room
• $1 gifts
• Scholarships

Special opportunities for seniors

• Senior speeches, parting advice, reflections, Q&A

• Rebuttal from mentors

• Funny awards for mentors
• Contribution to “memory box”
• Opportunity to sign something

• Robot
• Shipping crate

...Anything I missed?

[Pault]

One idea my team had was to give each senior the game piece from their graduating year, signed by the entire team.

This could get interesting it FIRST were to bring back trackballs.

[Phyrxes]

Our graduating students can also earn a medallion to wear at graduation.

[cmrnpizzo14]

Pro-tip: paper plate awards can get dicey if you aren't careful!


They are so much fun when done well though

On 3173 the seniors are recognized at our end of year banquet. We have not yet solidified a system of recognition but unofficially many of the seniors will take a small part of the robot with them. All students also receive varsity letters as general recognition.

[ebarker]

Our robot this year was waterjetted panels riveted together.

The seniors names are waterjetted in the front panel of the robot.