TEACHER RESOURCE
Who You Are Makes a Difference
A teacher in New York decided to honor each of her seniors in high school by telling
them the difference they each made. Using a process developed by Helice Bridges of
Del Mar, California, she called each student to the front of the class, one at a time. First
she told them how the student made a difference to her and the class. Then she presented
each of them with a blue ribbon imprinted with gold letters which read, “Who I Am
Makes a Difference.”
Afterwards the teacher decided to do a class project to see what kind of impact
recognition would have on a community. She gave each of the students three ribbons
and instructed them to go out and spread this acknowledgment ceremony. Then they
were to follow up on the results, see who honored whom and report back to the class in
about a week.
One of the boys in the class went to a junior executive in a nearby company and honored
him for helping him with his career planning. He gave him a blue ribbon and put it on
his shirt. Then he gave him two extra ribbons and said, “We’re doing a class project on
recognition, and we’d like you to go out, find somebody to honor, give him a blue
ribbon, then give him the extra blue ribbon so he can acknowledge a third person to keep
this acknowledgment ceremony going. Then please report back to me and tell me what
happened.”
Later that day the junior executive went in to see his boss, who had been noted, by the
way, as being kind of a grouchy fellow. He sat his boss down and he told him that he
deeply admired him for being a creative genius. The boss seemed very surprised. The
junior executive asked him if he would give him permission to put it on him. His
surprised boss said, “Well, sure.”
The junior executive took the blue ribbon and placed it right on his boss’s jacket above
his heart. As he gave him the last extra ribbon, he said, “Would you do m HH