CARIBOU, Maine — In a packed cafeteria auditorium, the Caribou Middle School eighth-graders were celebrated for their achievements and accomplishments on June 17.
Among the awards presented during the evening, Caleb Libby earned the Volunteer Service Award and Meagan Dube earned the Secretary of State Citizenship Award, presented by State Representative Carol McElwee.
Camryn Langille earned the Principal’s Award, presented by CMS’s Principal Leland Caron.
“This student is exemplary in our school system, and everything she does inspires everyone around her,” Caron described.
Langille also greeted the audience alongside Danielle Hanson.
“We were the first class to stay at Teague Park as fifth-graders, I have to say we were all a bit bummed out,” Hanson said, explaining how they were extra excited to attend the new school by the time they were finally sixth-graders.
“Now that we’re in eighth grade, looking back on our first day of sixth grade and being both excited and nervous and being about this tall,” Langille said, holding her arm about mid-waist high, “I think that we have come a long way since then.”
Principal Caron touched on that topic during his address to the eighth-graders, reminding them of their first days at CMS when it was a challenge to find their classrooms in the big school. The students have had many challenges during their days at CMS and while many challenges were overcome, Caron pointed out that sometimes, the students did not achieve what they had set out to — and that was OK. He outlined that growth happens through struggling toward a challenge, and urged the students to never stop challenging themselves and avoid having a fixed mindset.
“In a nutshell,” Principal Caron said, “people who are afraid to take challenges have a fixed mindset.”
Instead, he encouraged the students to go forward striving to make the best of their futures by taking on new challenges, and learning from mistakes they’ve made — just like the popular children’s book characters Harry Potter (from the Harry Potter series) and Katniss Everdeen (from the Hunger Games series).
