Aragon Leadership’s student recognition team has implemented a new reward system called CARES cards, replacing the CARES cash system. The first CARES casita of the spring semester and the first raffle took place on Jan. 25 and Jan. 27 respectively.
In the new CARES card system, students will receive cards from teachers that look similar to CARES cash, but work slightly differently. Teachers will hand out cards after signing off which values of CARES that student exemplified.
According to leadership teacher and activities director Heather Stretch, the new system is meant to focus more on the CARES values—connect, achieve, respect, engage and show spirit.
“We love that staff members are having conversations with the students about CARES,” Stretch said. “We want to go back to the recognition piece and the conversation around why we’re celebrating what the students are doing.”
CARES casitas happen every Wednesday, when students can turn in the cards for smaller prizes and enter a raffle for a chance at an additional bigger prize, like gift cards. Every Friday, the raffles will be drawn and winners are announced the following week. Raffles reset every week.
“We want to go back to the recognition piece and the conversation around why we’re celebrating what the students are doing”
The original CARES cash program rolled out in spring 2022. It involved teachers rewarding students with CARES cash—red cards with a value of one, five or 10. These would then be traded at CARES casitas in the leadership room for prizes.
The switch in reward systems was made due to several issues in the previous CARES cash system.
“Not all teachers give out CARES cash,” said senior Behruz Azimov. “It’s unfair because a certain group of people have access to all of these different prizes while [the] majority of students can’t purchase anything.”
There were also suspicions regarding how students acquired the CARES cash.
“Ms. Stretch realized that students were carrying hundreds of CARES cash,” said junior Sam Laureese Perales. “She thought that was unusual. We came to the conclusion that [students] were stealing CARES cash. Some students [and] teachers were [just] giving them away.”
Leadership is cautiously optimistic about the new system.
“I already know that there’s probably some pushback with students about not getting as big of prizes right away,” Stretch said. “But I hope that the focus is not so much on getting the prize, but more [on] celebrating the CARES [values].”
“We just wanted to find a way to have students really think about the values that they carry while having fun”
Some students are concerned about the teacher’s role in distributing CARES cards, a similar problem they had with CARES cash.
“Some teachers are just more inclined to give out CARES cards than others,” Azimov said. “For instance, an activity or action that one teacher thinks resembles CARES, [another] might not think that same way.”
The switch to CARES cards involved many moving parts.
“We started with the feedback from student recognition,” Stretch said. “But we’re [also] hearing feedback from students who are in line [for the casita]. Most importantly, we met with administration because we always want to make sure that what we’re doing makes sense for all of Aragon.”
Teachers are another important part of the new CARES card program’s success. History teacher Jennifer Seif finds the new system an exciting evolution of the previous CARES cash.
“[CARES cards] embody so many of the important characteristics and traits that we want as a community,” Seif said. “It’s nice to see the next generation of leadership taking it on and letting it evolve.”
Junior Maylani Fiel sees the change as a step in the right direction.
“You get a prize and then you’re also entered into a raffle which is pretty cool,” Fiel said. “I think it might be better than having to save up constantly for one big thing.”
Student recognition hopes that CARES cards will effectively allow the Aragon community to connect and celebrate each other.
“I think it will encourage students to show more spirit and participate in class more,” Perales said. “We just wanted to find a way to have students really think about the values that they carry while having fun.”
Starting this month, leadership will be sending out a Google form for student feedback on the new CARES card system. The next CARES casita is on Feb. 15.
