Administration felt a shared sense of relief after a compassionate student returned a missing wallet.

“All of admin and teachers had received an email about a missing wallet,” counselor Kelly Coxe said. “The next thing I know, I received another email saying that it had been found and that a student had turned it in. Everyone on the email was super excited and proud and wanted to know who the student was.”

Coxe later found out exactly who it was: junior Adriana Venzant Corpas. Venzant was subsequently named CFISD’s Student of the Week for her act of service.

“When sophomores were doing their benchmark, my class was relocated,” Venzant said. “I went to the classroom and found a wallet. The wallet had credit cards and $400 in it, and I just gave it to the AP.”

For Venzant, the contents of the wallet struck a chord for her and returning the wallet had additional significance.

“I knew she was [an immigrant] because the wallet had a green card in it.” Venzant said. “And as a hispanic myself coming from another country, I know how hard it is to get money. 400 dollars could have been used for food they were going to eat that week, or rent or something. It don’t think it was right for me to take it. “

When Venzant found the wallet, she immediately located her assistant principal, Michael George.

“A couple of weeks ago, we had a custodian report that they were missing their wallet, $400 in cash, their immigration visa, passport, as well as a credit card,” George said. “We were doing a testing day that day, and Mr. Mason’s second period was relocated to room 2450, which is on the complete other end of the building. It just so happened to be in the general vicinity of where this custodian thinks that they may have lost their belongings.”

Both Venzant and George were in the right place at the right time that day.

“When I unlocked the door, I let the students in,” Mr. George said. “Adriana came up to me and said ‘Hey Mr. George, I think a student left their wallet in here last period,’ and she brought it straight to me.”

George and Coxe wanted to recognize Adriana for showing Cougar P.R.I.D.E.

“We just wanted to give her an extra little shoutout,” George said. “Ms. Coxe had mentioned that there was a way to nominate students for Student of the Week across the district. I thought that her handing over the wallet was bringing out the theme for February which just so happened to be kindness.”

Venzant was ultimately selected for Student of the Week, but she’s been feeling the heat of the spotlight.

“I don’t really like attention on me,” Venzant said. “I just wanted to give the wallet back. I don’t really like the attention on it, but I’m grateful for it. In my JROTC class they were showing my picture and it was really embarrassing”

Venzant has one thing to say to people this week: “Don’t take stuff that’s not yours.”