The awards came from an endowment set up by Henry Doscher, a retired captain in the U.S. Naval Reserve and a nephew of the school’s namesake, Major Charles Paul Shearn III.

Three years ago, Doscher set up an endowment to reward students for good citizenship and academic improvement by having each teacher select two students per year—one whose grades had improved the most and one who displayed exemplary citizenship—to receive a special "Major Shearn" knit polo shirt, embroidered with a logo that incorporates the school’s mascot, a lion.

“This is something the kids look forward to every year,” says Principal Minerva Mendoza. “They really work hard to be picked, and many of them wear their Major Shearn shirt at least once a week after that.”

Doscher’s ancestor was the scion of a prominent Houston family and a teacher of history and military science at HISD’s San Jacinto High School (which closed in 1971). He was captured by the Japanese during World War II at Corregidor and lost his life in December 1944 when the ship carrying him to a prison camp was sunk. The school named in memory of him was built in 1954.