ReMake with a motto Admin hopes to freshen up this school year with new precept Katrell Readus
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readukat000@hsestudents.org
eBuild, ReConnect, and ReEngage”, the motto created by a select group of students during a summer leadership summit, encourages the entire student body to get involved in clubs, activities and social groups. Assistant Principal Kyle Goodwin believes that with this motto, hard work and participation from the student body, students will be able to forge connections and build relationships in a way they were unable to in the last two years. “One of the challenges coming off of a year and a half of very weird education was we really lost some of the things we hold near and dear to our hearts here at Fishers,” Goodwin said. “That’s studentteacher connections and students feeling like they’ve got something to be excited about coming to school. In the last 18 months, we have been robbed of those things that we value here.” This new motto has a purpose, in the process of its formulation, the student-led team in charge was tasked with encompassing their goals for this school year in a short percept. The hope is that this directive will give students the encouragement needed to commit to a group or club, get to know their peers, and engage in their classes and with those around them. Goodwin the students hit the nail on the head. “The students [in the leadership summit] captured it so well by putting that prefix ‘re’ in front of those words meaning that we have to be conscious,” Goodwin said. “We have to make conscious efforts to rebuild the traditions we lost and some of those connections that we had taken for granted, we have to reconnect and make those connections happen again and reengage in what the school process looks like, unlike other years where we took coming back to school for granted.” COVID-19 dismantled the education system, forcing students to shift the format in which they attended school,
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but also allowed time for them to reevaluate the way they thought and felt about it. This time could be important, particularly for juniors and seniors, who may still be concerned about making connections and building traditions. Junior Ivy Tran thinks that COVID affected her in that after returning from the untraditional learning process of the last school year, she finds herself now
struggling to hit the ground running this year. “My freshman year, I didn’t do any clubs, but I felt closer to the school. As a freshman you have this sense of wanting to know and see everything, but as time went on and quarantine happened and you’re stuck in your own home, you couldn’t get involved in anything, so when you go back to school it’s harder to start again when you’re already over halfway through high school,” Tran said. Tran touches on the fact that when coming into freshman year it is possible to have a media-informed outlook on the high school experience. “Freshman year, I thought high school was going to be like a movie,” Tran said.
“I thought I would have the boyfriend and all the friends, but I didn’t. After spending more time in high school and time in quarantine, you lose that outlook and those connections.” Now returning as an upperclassman, Tran is determined to get involved in what the school has to offer, by auditioning for team captain for choir, and looking into clubs. “When I think about that summer leadership group, made up of mostly juniors and seniors, we spent time talking about, ‘What are some things you miss about school?’,” Goodwin said. “Things that kept coming up were some of those traditions and the experiences that made students feel like they were a part of something bigger than yourself.” Club participation is highest among upperclassmen and lowest amongst freshmen, according to Goodwin. This shows him that once students reach their final years, they heightened sense of wanting to be involved as graduation looms closer . “That data shows that, the more people are here and see that it’s okay to connect with people outside of the classroom, that it’s okay to participate in things, the more people are inclined to do so,” Goodwin said. After looking at this data, Goodwin hopes that upperclassmen are willing to set an example for incoming students. “I’m hoping that these constant messages of ‘ReBuild, ReConnect, and ReEngage’ as they see their friends take risks and joining more groups or going to more events and seeing that model laid out before them by upperclassmen, they will be more inclined to join.” Senior class president Claire Padron is 100% sure that her peers are still interested and excited about getting involved and in turn, model different levels of engagement to younger students. “Every student I’ve talked to in my senior class has been so excited to get back to old traditions and even make new ones,” Padron said. “...Students, especially seniors, are ready to get back to normal and ready to make the most of this school year to make up for lost time.”
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