As a HS CS teacher, one of the ways that I can promote the subject is by seeing that students are recognized for their skills. One such way is to participate, (and maybe do well) in programming contests for high school students. This year there are 3 contest in Florida that we will send teams to: at Stetson University (held in November already), the University of Florida (April), and the University of Central Florida (May). These contests give our students the opportunity to see other students with like interests and skills. Every student that I have taken to these contests, even when they perform poorly, has said that it was a great experience, well worth the time.
Well, most of you do not live in Florida, so you may not be interested in those contests, but I have found out about a national contest open to high school students. It is sponsored by Microsoft. It is called the Project Hoshimi Programming Battle and registration has opened for the event which will take place in March.
There is information at the mainfunction website:
http://www.mainfunction.com/ . If you are interested you should check out Daryll McDade's blog entry on this contest: http://blogs.msdn.com/daryllmc/archive/2006/01/20/515693.aspx
It doesn't hurt that the prizes include X Box 360s. Let me know if you have any students participate. I'm going to let my students know about this week.