Freshman Marcos Ugarte is now seen as a hero through the eyes of not only the media, but also the nation. This is all because of the heroic actions that earned him a round piece of metal that carries one of the highest recognitions a 15-year-old can hold.

Recently, Ugarte traveled to the Arlington Cemetery to receive the Citizen Service Before Self Honors award that he won due to his heroic act of saving a little boy from a neighborhood fire back in September.

The school may have been shocked because Ugarte was the youngest person to receive this award, but he was in awe of the capitol itself.

“When we got to [Washington] D.C., there was so much to look at,” Ugarte said, in awe.

According to the official Citizen Service Before Self Honors website, in order to win the award, one must “clearly [demonstrate] a willingness to place his or her own life at risk for others.”

According to The Oregonian, the only other minors who were finalists were a 6-year-old New Jersey boy who died fighting off an attacker threatening his sister and a 7-year-old girl in Florida who attacked a man trying to kidnap her cousin. There were 22 finalists for this prize, but only four became the 2013’s honorees, one of them being Ugarte.

Two of the winners of the prize earned it because they battled the fierce winds in order to help others. Another medalist won because of the program he established to take care of the hungry, homeless and lonely people in his community.

However, it was not all about the US civilian award. A major experience Ugarte took away from this event was having the opportunity to observe the Medal of Honor ceremony. The Medal of Honor award is given to U.S. soldiers who are brave enough to take action during the present war, according to the Citizen Service Before Self Honors website.

For Ugarte, the stories told during the Medal of Honor ceremony were inspirational due to the amount of selflessness the acts required from those in the military.

“It was a motivating experience to do better in school,” Ugarte said. “I just won the citizen version, but it was nice to hear stories about [soldiers] winning awards, too.

After Ugarte’s actions earlier in the year, he reached national fame by visiting TV personality Ellen DeGeneres in October on her show.

According to Ugarte, it is difficult to be in the limelight.

“Now, there is a built pressure to be good,” Ugarte said.

However, there are many students who believe in Ugarte. One of these students is Thai Romero, freshman and a football teammate of Ugarte’s.

“Marcos is a good person…and when I heard about what he did, I was proud,” Romero expressed. “I was proud to know there are good people in this world.”

In all, Ugarte’s winning of the Citizen Service Before Self Honors award was an addition to Ugarte’s belt of appreciation. While sudden fame can be hard to deal with, people know that he is a hero in the eyes of the nation. All Ugarte had to do was think about others before himself for just a moment, to receive what has become an everlasting barrage of good thoughts and happiness.