Today’s guest blog comes from Jeremy Hersch, an advisor and social studies teacher from Grossmont High School in San Diego California. He and his students attended our Kind Monsters EDU event, a summit for school administrators, teachers, and students to come together to find ways to improve their schools.
Kind Monsters EDU inspired this team to work towards generating hundreds of acts of kindness in their community. We can’t do this important work alone. With the help of our partners and the generous donations from supporters like YOU, we are working to cultivate positive school climates around the nation. Support our work and help build a kinder, braver world by donating today.
When the topic of social media and young people comes up, the conversation generally includes phrases like “cyber bullying,” “waste of time,” “kids are always on their phones,” etc. At Grossmont High School, we set out to prove that our students are awesome and that their social media channels can be filled with kindness and positivity!
Two Grossmont High students and I had the opportunity to speak to over 150 middle school kids at “Kind Monsters EDU” hosted by Mattel and Born This Way Foundation. The event focused on solving problems kids are experiencing at school and encouraging them to find creative ways to address these issues. Conversing with these young students, we were inspired by their drive to create change for “happier, more inclusive, trustworthy, and nicer” campuses. This incredible experience pushed us to develop a plan to make an even bigger impact back at Grossmont with regard to positivity and social media.
During the month of November, Grossmont High School launched our #gratefulhiller campaign (our mascot is the Foothillers). Our objective was to add a little positivity to the social media feeds of our student body. We were hopeful we would get 15-20 students to participate. Much to our surprise, we were thrilled that our #gratefulhiller campaign had 15-20 entries in the first few hours! At the end of the two week campaign, we ended up having 140 students submit entries with nearly 14,000 interactions on social stemming from our #gratefulhillers campaign.
Because of the positive atmosphere fostered at “Kind Monsters EDU,” we at Grossmont have benefitted tremendously. We were able to continue our own journey to a kinder and braver campus for all, fueled by the inspiration and passion of the middle school students at the conference. For more information on starting a kindness campaign at your school or organization, please reach out to Jeremy Hersch ([email protected]).