March Madness
LH helps students celebrate life after high school
PEARCY — More than 100 Lake Hamilton High School 12th-graders gearing up for graduation next month signed certificates Monday signifying their intent to attend college, trade school or enter the military after high school.
“It’s just an opportunity for us to recognize publicly our kids that are going to college, or to a trade school, or into the military,” Superintendent Steve Anderson said. “For generations, we’ve had special recognitions for our kids that were involved in extracurricular activities, and that’s great; we never want to take away from them. But we want an opportunity to recognize our kids that are excelling, taking their academics very seriously and moving on.”
The academic signing day was the culminating event to the district’s Lake Hamilton March Madness, which began March 12.
“We did a new initiative this year and it was Lake Hamilton March Madness,” Brian Bridges, communications coordinator for the district, said. “We set it up to coincide with the NCAA Basketball Tournament. So, we started it on March 12 which was the first game, and then it ends today which is the men’s national championship, and we’re considering this our championship. We are celebrating college, and the whole point of Lake Hamilton March Madness was just to start conversation about life after Lake Hamilton.”
Bridges said students and staff in all buildings from pre-K through 12th grade participated in the March Madness initiative.
“We had March Madness Mondays where each Monday our teachers and staff and students wore a shirt that represented their favorite college or university, or even trade school,” he said. “Every teacher on campus had a sign on their door that said ‘Ask me about my college experience,’ and they wrote on there where they went to college. They also had different activities. Each building and their counselors and staff, and student council, had different activities that they did just promoting college and what is college.
“Some of our lower grades, kindergarten and first grade, may not know about college, but they
start talking to them about careers. ‘What might you want to be?’ ‘I want to be a vet because I like animals.’ And then ask what it would take to be a vet. So the whole point of this was just to spark conversation about what are you interested in, what steps you need in order to attain that goal. So that’s why we did it this year and it’s proven pretty successful.”
More than 100 students signed their letters of intent and Bridges said the district wants to recognize the students’ accomplishments and plans after leaving Lake Hamilton.
“Even if it’s not college, we want them to know where they’re going to go once they graduate,” he said. “And so that’s the whole point of this is to start the conversation. We did academic signing day a couple years ago and it was very successful, and we did it in the arena. We moved it to the auditorium this year to make it more personal, and to really make it to where you can focus on the students signing.
“We do this for our athletics. We’ve got a signing tomorrow with one of our athletes that are going off and that’s doing cross country. And so the point of this is, we’re celebrating that signing, why not celebrate just going on academics, or going to the military, just furthering yourself as a citizen. I think it’s made them think about the future and that was the whole goal is to think about life after Lake Hamilton.”
Anderson said the district takes great pride in its alumni and likes to keep track of what former students do after graduation.
“We’re very proud of these kids and we want our kids when they leave Lake Hamilton to have a plan for the future.” Anderson said. “Life doesn’t end at your senior year of high school. Whether they’re going to college, whether they’re going to a two-year college or four-year university, or they’re going to a trade school, the military or straight into the workforce, we just want an opportunity to recognize some of those kids.
“We’re real proud of our kids and you know, I watched (Noah Davis) that graduated last year on ‘American Idol’ last night. We have a young man, you’ll probably see, on our Facebook page, Nick Amerson, who is at the United States Air Force Academy. Just because they leave Lake Hamilton doesn’t mean they’re not still one of our kids. We like to say ‘Once a wolf, always a wolf.’ We keep up with those kids and what happens to them in life after high school.”
Parents and family of the upcoming graduates were invited to attend the signing day and celebrate their students’ plans upon graduation.
“Most of the people up toward the front are not our 18-year-old seniors; most of them are parents, family members who are very proud,” Anderson said. “This just gives us an opportunity to let those parents see their kids sign their letters of intent to their next step. We’re real excited about it and anything we can do to promote the idea that life doesn’t end at 12th grade.”
Bridges said Lake Hamilton March Madness has made Lake Hamilton students and parents think about the future more seriously.
“That was the whole goal is to think about life after Lake Hamilton,” he said. “We want these students to be prepared, and some of them don’t start thinking about it until it’s too late. So we even encourage parents to talk about the future with their kids because the conversation shouldn’t start their junior year or senior year of high school. It should start as early as kindergarten just about careers and then get stronger as they get older so that it’s not a surprise and it’s not stressful. There’s a lot of times where seniors are stressed because a lot of them don’t know what they’re doing the next year. We’re hoping this alleviates some of that stress.”