When looking around a classroom, it is highly unlikely to find two Chromebooks that look the same. Through- out a student’s four years with their Chromebook, it gets customized. Stickers from varying sources and of different types get put on the front and back to create a Chromebook unique to the student.

Based on a survey taken by 167 students, 92.8% of those students have at least one Chromebook sticker. 60.4% of the responses say that their stickers represent them, ranking a four or five on the Likert scale.

Students put stickers on their Chromebook for many reasons. This is clear when looking at the connection students have with their stickers.

Lindsay Lee (12) has a sticker that says “Keep moving forward”.

“It’s motivation for when things get rough to never give up and keep on trying,” Lee said.

Kian So (11) has chromebook stickers of vegetables, fruit, VHGIVE, LMC, and the class of 2026, but he really likes his Vernon Hills orchestra sticker.

“I got it last year just to represent and support our fine arts program,” So said.

Stickers have become a way for students to show what they like, to highlight the things they’re involved in, and to keep themselves motivated.

“[Stickers] are a mini outlet for [students] to express themselves,” Aiva Puzon (9) said.

Teachers saw the students’ interest in stickers and started joining in on the fun. Amy Elliott, science teacher, started to give them out after the pandemic. Once students went back to school, giving out candy was not as popular, so Elliott gave out stickers.

Elliott gives out stickers as a means of celebrating students’ accomplishments, including high performance on assessments or review games. She has a bin full of stickers for students to choose from.

“Pick [a sticker] and put it on your computer or your water bottle as a representation of your humor,” Elliott said.

Elliott has a variety of stickers she gives out. She started with science stickers and then got stickers of memes, animals, neon signs and anything else she deemed fun. Elliott eventually made her own AP Bio stickers.

Students put different types of stickers on their Chromebooks. 66.9% of the students who answered the survey had stickers relating to school. The next most popular categories are stickers of animals (51.6%) and stickers for clubs (34.4%).

While some students fill their Chromebook with different types of stickers, Rino Lim (12) took a different path.

“[My Chromebook] has a lot of CLC dual credit stickers. As many as I could find,” Lim said.

Chromebook stickers have become a way for students to show who they are, and other students see each other’s Chromebooks every day in classes.

“I like to look at other people’s Chromebook stickers. Some of them make me smile… It can brighten up someone’s day just looking at the sticker,” Veronika Titova (10) said.