Jean Kuczka is selected for her singular act of heroism on October 24, 2022, when she stood in front of her students at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School as a shooter entered her classroom. Kuczka placed herself between her students and danger, in order to save innocent lives. Kuczka’s courage reflects great credit upon herself, her family, and the state of Missouri. Every year since 2007, a nationwide search is conducted to select five United States citizens and one organization to receive the Citizen Honors Awards. The Awards are one of the numerous ways the Congressional Medal of Honor Society fulfills its mission to promote the values embodied by the Medal: courage, sacrifice, integrity, commitment, patriotism, and citizenship.