How to Select a School Mascot

The mascot represents a school at athletic events and is often featured on school-related posters, yearbook covers and gym uniforms. Since students will probably look at the mascot on a daily basis, administration should choose a mascot that inspires school pride rather than embarrassment or shame. Many schools choose tough animals (e.g. bulldogs, hornets) as mascots but students may prefer a more peaceful image -- for example, students at the University of California-Santa Cruz chose a banana slug as a mascot to express disapproval of aggressive athletic competition. It's best to let students choose the school's mascot -- this way, the students will be pleased with it and the mascot will represent the nature of the school.

Instructions

    • 1

      Announce a school-wide contest to create the next school mascot. Invite students to submit the name and description of a mascot they'd like to represent the school. Offer a reward for the winner, for example, a plaque with their name on it to be hung in the school halls, money or another motivator.

    • 2

      Collect and review the submissions. Keep in mind that the mascot should be relatively easy to draw (someone will have to draw the mascot to appear on yearbooks and other school materials), and it should be possible to create or purchase a costume in the likeness of the mascot (someone will have to dress up as the mascot for sporting events). Discard submissions that describe overly complicated mascots.

    • 3

      Look through the remaining submissions and discard any blatantly offensive/silly "joke" submissions, submissions that describe copyrighted characters or submissions that involve specific religious or cultural groups (e.g. Native Americans).

    • 4

      Give the submissions to other school personnel and let them pick through them too. As a group, decide on 10 or fewer submissions that you like the best.

    • 5

      Create a voting ballot that allows students to choose their next mascot and distribute a ballot to each student.

    • 6

      Collect the ballots throughout the course of a week. The mascot with the most votes will be the new school mascot.