HeritagePanel3.JPG

With the New Year upon us, January has been designated as National Mentoring Month.

According to the website, www.nationalmentoringmonth.org, NMM was established in 2002 by the Harvard School of Public Health and MENTOR (The National Mentoring Partnership) and “focuses national attention on the need for mentors, as well as how each of us—individuals, businesses, government agencies, schools faith communities and nonprofits—can work together to increase the number of mentors to assure positive outcomes for our young people.”

Implementing their own sense of unity and a way to bond with members of their student body, Leeds High School (LHS) has developed Heritage Panel.

Striving to make high school, in this case LHS a more inclusive place Heritage Panel sponsor and 11^th grade English teacher, Jeff Thomas along with members of the YWCA are helping LHS students mentor each other by being more accepting.

As the entire school filled the LHS auditorium, senior Evan Kennedy asked his cohorts what they thought Heritage Panel was.

A student named Kayla replied, “It’s a group that wants to unite every single person.”

Echoing her sentiment, Evan added, “Heritage Panel is a group of people from different backgrounds that want to learn about each other. We want to breakdown barriers and celebrate each other’s differences.”

Several students sat on the stage braving judgment and shared stories of the many ways they had to overcome adversity.

Asia, who likes to change her hair a lot because it makes her feel stronger, encouraged her high school’s student body not to judge each other by appearance because everybody is born beautiful.

Ingrid suggested even though they’re young, for everyone to think before they act.

Ike said he wants to help improve LHS by having all students see each other as individuals and be accepting of their individuality.

Other students requested to be judged by their character and urged the entire LHS student body to come together as a school.

TJ complimented the school on its diversity saying, “I like this school. It’s a good place to be.”

Another student said she makes it her mission to make people smile because it makes her feel good. Asking the other students not to bully she added, “You have no idea what’s going on in their life. Just focus on bettering yours.”

Heritage Panel is made up of 50 juniors and seniors who applied through submitting an essay to Thomas.

Collectively Heritage Panel says their goal is “to make LHS the most accepting place students can be and for LHS students to celebrate every single thing about themselves.”

Thomas added, “Please honor and respect what you’ve heard here today.”

In the spirit of lifting up one another and celebrating differences, the students at Leeds High School lean on each other during National Mentoring Month.