Civic Excellence Honorees
Nevada's civic leaders, recognized.
Each year the Silver State Coalition for Civic Education, with the America 250 Nevada Commission, honors the students, educators, and schools who show what civic learning looks like when it is done well. These are the 2026 honorees.
2026 by the numbers
- 8Civic Leader Student Award scholars, $2,500 each toward college
- 4Civic Leader Educator Award recipients across three school levels
- 1School of Civic Excellence, Nevada's first
Civic Leader Educator Award
Teachers whose classrooms reach the top of the rubric
The Civic Leader Educator Award honors Nevada K-12 teachers whose classroom and community work rate at the Model level of the Civic Excellence Rubric. Each recipient receives a $1,776 classroom or professional development grant. In 2026 the Commission added a middle school category so that all three levels are represented.
Tamara Jensen
Washoe County School District
An 18-year Washoe County teacher, Tamara has spent the last two years building civics into the heart of 5th grade, using the We the People curriculum with every 5th grader at her school and winning a dedicated social studies block for the coming year. Her students practice disagreeing with respect through what she calls "Benign Controversies," low-stakes debates that build the skills for harder conversations later.
Corrine & Trevor Moffat
Washoe County School District
Married co-teachers with 21 years each in the classroom, Corrine and Trevor run a unified two-year civics program built on three informed action projects: the 28th Amendment Project, the Indigenous Americans Project, and Be the Change. Students interview experts, community members, and tribal members, then produce policy proposals, amendments, and public service announcements for real audiences. Their joint application led the Commission to create a middle school award category.
Andrew Flagg
Clark County School District
In nine years teaching U.S. History, AP U.S. History, and Dual Enrollment History 101, Andrew has built a classroom where students work as historians: sourcing, contextualizing, and defending claims with evidence through document-based questions and Socratic seminars, then connecting constitutional principles to the civic issues in front of them today. He mentors newer social studies teachers and helped design his school's advanced history pathway.
Civic Leader Student Award
Eight seniors who saw a need and acted on it
Every Civic Leader Student Award scholar earned the Nevada Seal of Civics, completed a service-learning project, and wrote about what civic leadership means to them. Each receives a $2,500 scholarship toward post-secondary education. Here is what they did.
Miley Nobles
Clark County
Founded Giving Back With Miley and collected 165 hoodies for unhoused teens through the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth, then added back-to-school snack giveaways and mini snack stations at youth shelters.
Elle Evans
Washoe County
Founded the Incline Service Club to address food insecurity and housing instability in Carson City, running fundraisers, clothing drives, and a meal-packing event with a goal of 10,000 meals, and built the club to outlast her own graduation.
Avery Struby
Reno
A founding leader of her school's St. Vincent de Paul Society Club, Avery coordinated the Friends of the Poor Walk, drawing about 200 participants and raising more than $5,000, doubled by a matching donor, for housing-insecure families in Reno and Carson City.
Kadin Su Maberry
Washoe County
Co-led Playtime for Pediatrics, partnering with Renown Children's Hospital, Toys for Tots, and the Plumb Lane Lions Club to raise more than $7,500 and deliver 40 gift baskets to hospitalized children. Continues to volunteer at Northern Nevada Medical Center.
Morgan Hertz
Washoe County
Founded and led a community kosher kitchen serving Jewish individuals and families facing food insecurity in the Reno area, coordinating volunteers, meals, and supplies. Served as president of her school's JAG Career Association and the Nevada State Career Association.
Treasure Hunt
Washoe County
Developed a research and outreach plan to educate her school community about HIV and reduce stigma, with plans to bring the work to local lawmakers and public health professionals. Her focus on healthcare equity runs through her AP Seminar research and her pageant platform.
Jackson Hohnholz
Lyon County
Completed two service-learning projects: a traffic safety petition, and a successful campaign against a district cellphone policy that he argued before the Lyon County School District Board of Trustees.
Giliana Isabel Gonzales
Clark County
Led a literacy-focused Book Club service project and served on a youth leadership council, bringing younger students into reading and civic life.
School of Civic Excellence
Nevada's first designated school
The School of Civic Excellence designation recognizes a whole school, not a single classroom, for civic learning across the School, Classroom, and Community domains of the rubric. The designation is valid for up to five years and comes with a plaque, a banner, and standing as a model site for other Nevada schools.
Doral Academy of Northern Nevada
Doral Academy of Northern Nevada is the first school in Nevada to earn the School of Civic Excellence designation. Doral made "Taking Informed Civic Action" its school-wide theme for the America 250 year, formed a teacher-led Civics Committee, and sent families a monthly Civics Corner. Every grade has protected social studies time, 5th and 7th graders study the Constitution through We the People and testify in mock congressional hearings, and the school budgets real money each year for civics curriculum, materials, and field trips.
What set the application apart was how often Doral students act on what they learn. Fourth graders testified before a Nevada Senate committee in support of designating the wild mustang as the state horse. A cross-grade group spoke at the Legislature on charter school policy. Middle schoolers completed more than 2,000 hours of community service, took a wildfire-safety design to the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow national finals, and won the People's Choice award at the Food Bank's CANstruction competition. The designation was presented alongside recognition of Doral teacher Sophia Blair as Nevada's 2026 History Teacher of the Year.
Next year's honorees
Could this be you, your teacher, or your school?
Applications for the 2027 awards are open. Student award deadlines are January 19 and April 30, 2027. The educator award closes April 30, 2027, and the School of Civic Excellence application closes March 1, 2027.