HHS juniors participate in first annual ‘Unity Day’

Looking around at the junior class crammed into the small gym, it seemed like a daunting task to try to unite a large part of the student body. For Keith Hawkins, speaker for Real Inspiration Incorporated, it was just another normal day of speaking to high school students.

Hawkins grew up in Los Angeles, Calif. and faced many challenges as a child. He was not expected to succeed with an abusive stepfather, a struggling single mother, a poor education, and a violent environment.

Despite these challenges, Hawkins turned his life around and used his struggles help other people. He is now a successful international speaker that speaks and conducts programs to over 400,000 students, educators, parents, leaders, and businesses each year. He has even spoken at the United Nations Global Summit on behalf of America’s youth.

“I think Kevin’s message was very powerful among the students,” said Maddie Holicky, junior. “I really liked how he focused on how important it is to work hard in life in order to achieve our goals. He also had a really good message about how everyone is going through struggles, no matter their race, gender, ethnicity, or popularity, which really made the students feel much more close with each other.”

On Thursday, Feb. 2, and Friday, Feb. 3, Hawkins spoke in front of HHS students for the first time. Unity Day took place in the old gym and spanned over the first three blocks of each day. The event was organized by mr. Doug Bullinger, principal, in an effort to bring the junior class together in a fun, stress-free manner.

The event also included a number of senior leaders to guide the juniors throughout the day, including Katie Gunderson, senior.

“I wanted to be a unity leader because I took this as a great opportunity to connect with the other grades in the high school, and to really get to know the people whom I didn’t already know,” Gunderson said.

In general, the junior class, along with the senior leaders, was actively engaged in Hawkins’s speech on the importance of uniting as a grade and respecting one another. Students listened attentively to Hawkins’s words and participated in collaborative activities. Some of the major themes in Hawkins’s speech included not comparing one another and highlighting the diversity of HHS.

Abby Feitl, junior, found Hawkin’s words both relevant and effective to HHS.

“Afterwards, everyone was talking about what some of the students had said about their class, and I felt more thankful for my classmates.”

In order to improve the event for future students and promote unity throughout the school, Holicky says that HHS should make it possible to include the entire grade, because people should leave feeling unified with more than only half of the class. She also said that it would be much more efficient to let the students know the schedule of the day ahead of time.

HHS has already held an event for seniors, and will hold the Respect Retreat for sophomores on Feb. 21. This is the first time an event like this has ever taken place at HHS to this extent, and by the looks of it, it won’t be the last.

“I think Hopkins should hold more of these Unity Days because I really enjoyed the experience and I feel like the speaker really connected with all of the grades. Also I feel like these Unity Days will really help our school for the better,” Gunderson said.