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'Ambassadors' mix it up, get it together
(by Sue Hoffman - February 17, 2011)
'Ambassadors' mix it up, get it together
By SUE HOFFMAN
They're athletes, top students, club leaders, dancers, marching band members or Center Stage actors with a well-rounded school life and friends. But they realize they have to do more to help others who might feel left out. They are Kenston High School's 10 "ambassadors," and they have a mission.
"We want to make everyone feel welcome," said Kelly Cregar, a freshman on the lacrosse and swimming teams. While she hasn't observed any bullying, she said, "There are different groups and exclusion between the groups. Our job is to not have exclusion."
Other ambassadors agreed. The main issue at the school involves cliques, said Mario Manacci, a junior who's on the football and track teams. "I feel everyone can get along, but they're not always nice."
Sometimes students just stop talking to someone, said junior Tess Ferguson, who's on the girls' basketball team, or they talk behind people's backs. "With the time we have to be at school, it's important for people not to be excluded," she said.
Chosen by teachers and administrators, the ambassadors are a key component of the district's Peaceful Environment at Kenston initiative. This is the second year that the high school, middle school and intermediate school have placed students in charge of "being the change," according to school officials. Other programs to promote kindness and discourage exclusion are taking place at the elementary levels.
New ambassadors are chosen each year, high school guidance counselor Jessica Kardamis said. "We like to have a variety of students," she said, with each bringing different ideas on how to improve relationships at the school.
"They have all experienced bullying in some form," she said, as a bystander, victim or possibly an aggressor. "It helps to get their opinions" on how to institute changes that will discourage that type of behavior, she said.
This year's ambassadors from the Kenston School District received further training in the fall at a student retreat at West Woods Nature Center in Russell and participated in Project Love at Lakeland Community College.
Project Love encourages students to determine what changes they will make in their schools and trains them to recognize the importance that bystanders can play in stopping bullying, Mrs. Kardamis said. "It is a microcosm of Challenge Day," a character-building event that helped launch the PEAK ambassadors in 2008, she said. In the program, students met counterparts who were outside their friendship circles. "They got to know them on a one-on-one level," she said.
Ambassadors have been involved in several projects to improve student life at the schools, including presentation of monthly "Character of Kindness" awards to students who take a stand against negative behavior. They also led "Mix It Up" day, in which every student was directed to a random table at lunch to sit with people other than their usual groups.
"Most people sit with the same people each day. The goal was for people to sit at lunch with others and meet new people," said junior Christian Carter, a member of the swimming team and Kenston Center Stage.
"It was nice to meet new people and go outside of your comfort zone," said Jay Obman, a sophomore and golf team member. He still takes notice of the new people, he said. "I see them in the hall and give them a high five. It's grown into friendship."
With the help of the ambassadors, PEAK programs continue throughout the year. The students will be distributing "Kindness Counts" cards this spring as part of a district-wide effort to encourage all students to acknowledge acts of kindness and "pay it forward," Mrs. Kardamis said.
Student ambassadors also will be visiting the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in Beachwood to learn how hatred has impacted different cultures, she said.
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