CHS program rewards, recognizes and motivates students

Not every high school student gets recognition for graduating at the top of his class, scoring the winning touchdown or being the best musician in the orchestra.

Although these accomplishments don't go without reward, students outside of these successes are being noticed at Conway High School, as well.

The nationally recognized Renaissance program has been in the Conway School District for the past 20 years with a mission to reward, recognize and motivate all students for their academics and their attendance.

"This is an important program because it is attainable for any student and allows everyone to get a reward for doing the right thing," Cathy Gunter said Friday.

Gunter, who coordinates the program on the west campus, said there are about 750 students on each of the two high school campuses who are benefitting from this program, which includes prize drawings, rewards for perfect attendance and a discount card and coupon system.

"There are platinum, gold, silver and bronze cards that are given to students to use for discounts through supporting local businesses," Gunter said. "For instance, Central Baptist College is one of our sponsors and Renaissance students receive free admission to one of their home ball games."

Although certain grade point averages must be met before students receive a platinum, gold or silver card, the bronze card is a different story. Gunter said this card is seen as an "improvement prize" and motivates students to try a little harder.

"If they improve their GPA by 0.5 from one nine weeks to the next, no matter what the original score was, they still get a bronze card and this is so every student can have a chance," Gunter said.

Kyle Farmer, a Conway senior, said Monday that he definitely sees the Renaissance program as a good means of motivation for both himself and his peers to up their averages.

"I just think it's a good program that allows students to want to do more in school and do better," Farmer said.

Senior Micaela Tourville said although she doesn't think all students need motivation to ace a test or be in class on time, the idea of being rewarded for such accomplishments motivates students even further.

"I think that students would probably do well and try to come to school if we didn't have it, but I think the Renaissance program is more of an incentive for more people to do well in school," Tourville said.

According to Gunter, along with the discount cards, the coordinators have also written grants and received donations to purchase everything from DVDs to video games to computers to use as prizes in drawings for students involved in the program.

"We've made a push this last year and I think the year before as well to really revise it and make it more about the kids and more appealing to them," Gunter said.

As part of the improvements to the program, Gunter said she created a Renaissance project for seniors to make a visible commitment to finishing high school.

"The opportunity was given to the students who came and got their schedules early in the summer and if they made a commitment to do whatever it takes to graduate in 2009, they were able to dip their hand in paint and mark their handprint on a canvas," Gunter said. "Now we will have this canvas hanging up at graduation and other big events and it gives the kids a visual reminder of what it takes to graduate."

The members of the school's welding class were also a big component of this project, as they designed and created the standards that will be used to display the canvas and other projects to follow, she said.

The students who helped with this project were Matt Burgess, Parks Crawford, Daniel Tarpley, Austin Thrash, Chase Hickey, Zach Brewer, Joseph Wren, Austin Pew, Brandon Garrett, Jacob Bates, Trevor Gunter and welding teacher Jim Woods.

Gunter added since the push to involve more kids in the program began, the number of students who didn't miss a day of class jumped from four to 14 in just one school year.

"Students work really hard toward these goals and it's a huge difference just by them knowing they're going to get something for being there," Gunter said. "What we're hoping is that it improves the attendance ratio and the more they're in class, the more likely they are to do better."

(Staff writer Jessica Bauer can be reached by e-mail at jessica.bauer@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1236. To comment on this and other stories in the Log Cabin, log on to www.thecabin.net. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit)