CCHS senior Michael Campbell sits in the Eve Carson Memorial Garden on May 9. Campbell received the award at CCHS’s annual Senior Honors Night on May 8, and believes the real importance of the award is honoring the legacy of Carson, a CCHS Class of 2004 alumna. “When you receive an award like that, it’s bigger than yourself. It’s about the people she knew and the people she touched and the legacy she left,” Campbell said. Photo by Isabelle Duncan
Senior Michael Campbell was announced as the recipient of the Eve Carson Humanitarian Spirit Award on May 8.
To honor the life and legacy of 2004 CCHS alumna Eve Carson, the Foundation for Excellence in Public Education created the Eve Carson Humanitarian Spirit Award in 2009. Every school in the Clarke County School District selects a 5th, 8th, and 12th grader who has demonstrated excellence and outstanding school citizenship.
The award was given to senior Michael Campbell at CCHS’s annual Senior Honors Night on May 8. Campbell is a varsity athlete, an honor roll student, and winner of the Play It Smart program for CCHS and is involved in various student organizations on campus.
An infographic compiles previous Clarke Central High School Eve Carson Humanitarian Spirit Award winners since the award’s creation in 2011. Senior Michael Campbell, who won the award this year, felt that it will push him to continue his service to the community beyond his high school years. “Being able to carry that throughout the end of high school and carrying that to college and just knowing that people chose you for this award because of your character (means a lot),” Campbell said. Infographic by Mykolas Kumpis
“He works with JROTC, he goes to every school event, everything that parents and future students go to — he is there representing JROTC,” Coleman-Taylor said. “He represents his senior class with dignity and respect and grace and he reaches out to others to offer help without any stipulations. I think that that really represents the Eve Carson award.”
A dedicated committee led by English department Co-Chair David Ragsdale facilitates the process at CCHS.
“CCHS teachers received an email inviting them to nominate a student for the award, (which) described the characteristics the award seeks to honor and linked to articles about past winners,” CCHS school counselor Heidi Nibbelink said. “After teachers submitted their nominations, Ragsdale pulled together academic information for each student and shared it.”
After the nominations were compiled, Nibbelink says the committee reviewed individual nominees and selected a winner.
“This year we were a committee of four,” Nibbelink said. “I think an effort is made to include some faculty members who actually knew Eve (Carson) or were around during that era and can bring their knowledge of her and the things about her that made her such a unique and positive presence during her time at CCHS into our evaluation of the current nominees.”
Campbell, an award-winning two-sport athlete, believes that receiving the award isn’t a one-time honor and that he will continue to represent the values that the Eve Carson award is meant to recognize.
“I had people that knew her and her family who came up to me afterwards and were telling me how great she was and how they felt like I was a good fit for this award and that kind of just made everything come back together,” Campbell, a Gifted Minorities Achieving member, said. “Being able to carry that throughout my end of high school and carrying that to college and just knowing that people chose you for this award because of your character (means a lot).”
Senior and GMA member Jael Flores Zacarias feels that Campbell is an upstanding student who tries to help those around him.
“Michael is the type of person that instantly makes you feel comfortable in the conversation,” Flores Zacarias said. “He engages with anyone around him, and is very involved in all the projects he works on. Michael is just a strong and motivated individual in all aspects.”
For Campbell, the award serves to solidify the memory of Eve Carson while pushing him to continue his service to the community.
“(I) knew some background information about (Carson) and her reputation and just how great of a person she was. It’s one of those things where you don’t expect yourself to win an award like that until your name is called, and I was just in shock,” Campbell said. “When you receive an award like that, it’s bigger than yourself. It’s about the people she knew and the people she touched and the legacy she left.”
