Every school year during the spring semester, students who meet a high GPA standard receive Top Scholar recognition. An updated requirement for the program was implemented in 2019 to prevent pitting students against each other. Although this change did increase fairness for students by setting a fixed GPA cutoff, the Honored Mentor aspect of the Top Scholar program continues to disproportionately represent teachers in higher-level classes with recognition. 

Honored Mentor is a recognition given to teachers, coaches, counselors and administrators for having a significant impact on a student’s high school career. However, this recognition is limited because only students who are named Top Scholars can choose an honored mentor. As a result, the teachers who are recognized tend to be those who teach higher-level classes. Honored Mentor also recognizes more staff members than other awards at this school, with approximately 30 seniors each recognizing the staff member who recognized them most. Even with multiple students recognizing the same teacher, this recognizes more teachers than Teacher of the Year, which only recognizes at most eight high school teachers. However, nearly all of the teachers recognized on this list of Honored Mentor teachers are most often those who teach AP and IB classes. This disproportionately represents the staff at Carmel High School, giving more awards to teachers based on the level of class they teach and failing to consider the teachers who may have had an impact on students in other less rigorous classes.

With this in mind, we suggest the Honored Mentor recognition be extended to all seniors to reduce this discrepancy. If every senior was given the opportunity to recognize a teacher, coach, counselor or administrator, more staff members would be recognized. This recognition could also expand to include more counselors and coaches who also may have an impact on students who do not meet the Top Scholar GPA requirement. Whether a part of Graduation or just a certificate given to each mentor, allowing every senior to choose an Honored Mentor would increase recognition of staff members for their impact on individual students.