I had a "this is why I teach" moment today.
Today awards were given to students. Each teacher was required to give at least two awards. I thought the whole process was stupid; being told we had to give two awards whether we liked it or not. After the fact I felt better. One student who received three awards later said in my class that he had never experienced people applauding for him before. I was very happy that he was able to experience that. In my class he gets picked on a lot yet it doesn't seem to bother him. He is a very nice young man whose culture has very different views on some things from what we are used to. He has worked hard to learn English. The applause he got seemed to be more than most of the other students got. He was very pleased and proud.