Character: “The mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual.” Every student aims to be the best at what they do, whether it’s in a subject or simply being a generous person. However, some people are recognized for the great things they do in or out of the classroom, school-related or not.

A “Character Word of the Month” is chosen on a monthly basis. Assistant Principal Mandy Lewis asks each teacher to choose a student that they feel exemplifies that word the best. For example, let’s say the word is “Responsibility.” How is a student chosen?

“[Each teacher] will look at their students that are in their classrooms, in their clubs, in their extracurricular activities, sports, whatever it is and they will nominate students,” Lewis explains. “So then they write me a couple sentences about why they’re nominating and we send a letter home to the parents with that little blurb on there. We then have a monthly breakfast to recognize those students.”

Every month, a new word is chosen and a new group of students are chosen to be recognized for the good their teachers saw in them.

Some may think that only the “teacher’s pet” will get chosen to attend the breakfast. But, according to Lewis, in the two-and-a-half years Lafayette has been hosting this breakfast, about 600 individual students have been recognized on behalf of their honorable character.