 Olympia
students demonstrate achievement of the heart and mind
By Superintendent
Andrew Wise
Superintendent Andrew Wise writes that Olympia High and
Middle School students are working on a character skill each
month based on the life of Rachel Scott, the first student
killed in the Columbine Massacre.
Skills Include
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Kindness |
Belonging |
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Compassion |
Forgiveness |
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Grit |
Courage |
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Purpose |
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[March 14, 2016]
Olympia students understand the importance of excellence. They spend
their days studying, practicing, and demonstrating achievement in
the classroom, auditoriums, gymnasiums, and athletic fields. With
that said, Olympia community members and employees also know the
importance of demonstrating acts of the heart and soul. Based on the
work of Rachel Scott, the first student killed in the tragic
Columbine school tragedy in the 90’s, our students are focusing on
acts that demonstrate kindness, belonging, compassion, forgiveness,
perseverance, courage, and purpose.
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 Students at Olympia High and Middle School have accepted
“Rachel’s Challenge” to not only be great students, but to be
outstanding young men and women of character. Although one might
wonder how heart skills, known to many as soft skills, prepares kids
for college and career, you would need to look no further than the
skill sets universities want in their students and businesses want
in their employees. It is abundantly clear that without strong
emotional intelligence, work place etiquette, and communication
skills, students will not thrive in college or career, regardless of
how “book smart” they might be.
Students are beginning to recognize how important heart skills are
to others and themselves. Olympia Junior Matthew Althoff reflected,
and then stated, “It really brings out the true selves in our
students,” also commenting that “these are good universal lessons
(skills) that everyone can apply to their lives.”
Each month, Olympia Middle and High students focus on a heart skill,
most recently, the skill was compassion. All classrooms conducted
'compassion projects.'
Amanda Hapgood, High School English Teacher, commented that heart
skills “offer students the opportunity for seeing other people's
perspectives and the power of a kind word. Around Veteran's Day, my
students wrote thank you letters to soldiers. It was a simple
activity that helps a lot of personal meaning for many of the
students, who have relatives in active service. For the others, it
was a moment to pause and think about how others help us every day.
"The letters the students wrote were sent to Operation Gratitude,
who sent us back a note about how the letters would be inserted into
care packages that are sent to military personnel all over the
world. This made the students realize that their small act of
writing a simple thank you note would impact someone else far away.
Freshman student Marissa Horning commented that focusing on heart
skills “helps us get more in touch with how the rest of the world
interacts with each other. By doing activities focused on the heart,
we can improve our relationships with people. When our relationships
with others get better, our own lives get better." Olympia
students not only demonstrate heart through projects but also
through random acts of kindness. One example of kindness was shared
with me from an opposing high school girls’ basketball coach,
complementing our girls for compassion repeatedly giving the ball to
a special needs student from the opposing team until she was able to
make her first basket in a high school game.
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We have even seen an increase in the respect level amongst students
within our school. Our students are making a special effort to make
our new students feel welcome and develop a sense of belonging.
Mykala Swindle, freshman at OHS shared “it’s a good thing to show
our new students how they fit into the school. It makes students
feel special.”
Being successful in school and life requires much more than good
grades, it requires you to be a good human being. Olympia High
School principal, Ed Jodlowski states, “The entire school is
involved in embracing these concepts. We believe that students must
be able to embrace kindness, belonging, compassion, forgiveness,
grit, courage, and purpose not only at this level, but beyond the
walls of Olympia High School. We hope our students will grow to be
even better human beings beyond Olympia High School.”
All in all, we all are very proud of the Olympia faculty and
students for giving their heart to others.
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