Building Future Leaders

Two years ago we highlighted a pair of fresh-faced JROTC cadets on the cover of the Bethel Pride, and we thought it would be fun to check in with them to see how the program has shaped their lives and educational careers.

Graham-Kapowsin High School students Aalimah Shahzad and Michael Sams, Jr. were relatively new to the JROTC program when we featured them on the magazine. The students, now seniors, have both thrived in JROTC – Shahzad is now the school’s Battalion Commander, and Sams is the battalion’s Deputy

Command Officer.

“I really like knowing that I’m a part of something so much bigger,” Shahzad said of the JROTC program. “Knowing that you’re a part of something that is making a change, making a difference, making an impact on kids’ lives. Helping kids grow and be more than they thought they could be.”

Sams says he always knew he wanted to enlist in the military, so joining JROTC felt like a natural fit. During his years in the program, Sams has learned a host of life lessons about leadership and community.

“It’s a regular class,” he said. “It’s a class about how to be a better citizen, how to improve yourself, overall, throughout your life.”

When they graduate later this year, both students will head out into the world with a trove of skills and knowledge they wouldn’t have had without JROTC. Shahzad plans on heading to college to play lacrosse and study sociology or criminology. Sams hopes to enlist the military, and later wants to join his father’s roofing and construction company.

Advisory class is a time during the school day that allows teachers to work with sixth through twelfth grade students around a variety of topics. Whether it’s the state-required High School and Beyond planning, social emotional learning, or housekeeping items like class or building surveys, advisory is the time during the school day where it all happens.

The Advisory Task Force ensures that each grade level advisory class leads to the next. Chad Honig, Executive Director of Secondary Schools, said that’s key, especially because of the environment that it creates for students.

“Advisory is an opportunity to build strong relationships with students,” he said.

The Advisory Task Force makes sure schools are meeting the standards of the High School and Beyond law as students cover college and career exploration and create resumes. The team also works to push Advisory to the next level. Last year they developed a piloting process for a new state requirement for a digital High School and Beyond tool for students. The process took the entire school year and included a lot of student voice.

Made up of school administrators, teachers, counselors, CTE and behavioral health staff, the Task Force meets monthly, and subgroups of the team can actually meet more often than that.

This year students and teachers are being surveyed so the task force can learn what they feel are the most important parts of advisory, to help the team plan future lessons down the road.

We talk more about Advisory and the work of the task force on Episode 19 of our podcast. Listen and subscribe at bethelsd.org/podcast.

FAMILIES: PLEASE COMPLETE THE FAMILY INCOME SURVEY!

As you know, 24 of our schools with high numbers of low-income children now offer all meals for free thanks to the USDA's Community Eligibility Provision. You can see the full list at bethelsd.org/meals.

If your student attends one of those schools, we need you to fill out the Family Income Survey if you haven't already. This will help ensure that your child’s school continues to get the full amount of federal and state funding available to them, as the school must have a way to identify children from households that are at or below the federal poverty level.

If your student does not attend one of these schools, you may qualify for free or reduced-price meals. The free or reduced-price meals application can be found at bethelsd.org/meals.