Three Branford students have earned the 2018 Connecticut Association of Board of Education's (CABE) "Student Leadership Award" for distinguished leadership in school activities and in daily life.

On June 20, Branford Board of Education (BOE) member and CABE Board of Director member John Prins presented the awards to Walsh Intermediate School (WIS) students Ethan Piazza and Caroline Spaulding and Branford High School (BHS) student Bridget Wirtz. The presentation was made at the full BOE meeting. BOE chairman Michael Krause and Superintendent of Schools Hamlet Hernandez also congratulated the students.

Piazza, a class officer at WIS, will attend Hopkins School (New Haven) next year. Wirtz was this year's high school intern on the WIS expansion/addition project and will work this summer an employee with project construction manager, Fusco Corp.; before beginning her pursuit an engineering degree at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (MA) in the fall. Spaulding, who will enter BHS in the fall as a freshman, served as the Youth Honored Hero for the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation's CT Shoreline Take Steps Walk in Oct. 2017.

Hernandez had high praise for the three student leaders.

"We have just under 3,000 students in our school district; and our school district is incredibly diverse. We have children who are incredible leaders. But these children obviously have stood out, and they're recognized by their principals because they have clearly exhibited qualities that causes them to stand out," said Hernandez.

The CABE Student Leadership Awards, now in their 22nd year, are given to students selected by their school principals, based on criteria developed by CABE which define leadership. Prins shared a letter from CABE to the student winners, which read, in part, "Leadership is a quality that is hard to define but remains critical to our society [and] your principal considers you such a school leader. You should take pride in the recognition bestowed upon you [and we] encourage you to continue to think and act like a leader."