High School Mission Statement

For high school, I attended a private Christian institution located in a dying, once steel-powered community. My high school has a long, storied history since its establishment in the early half of the twentieth century. It remains linked to the past through the mantra of honoring traditions, being loyal to the school, and to have unwavering school pride. Each student is tasked with honoring this mission statement or risk being kindly asked to not return the next school year. Each student who attends is required to maintain moral values and is challenged academically. I am proud to be an alumna of my high school, as there are some highly admirable qualities pertaining to the institution. However, there are darker parts remaining under the

The majority of the students came from other Christian elementary schools in the surrounding areas while few students transferred from public schools for reasons that varied from bullying to educational and athletic opportunities. My high school prides itself in being a family in more ways than one. Many students have familial ties to the institution as almost every student had a parent, uncle, or grandmother attend the school. For me, this was undeniably true, my grandfather was a teacher there until his death and my mother and her sisters attended. In the hallowed halls, I could feel the weight of students gone by as I felt like I was not only upholding my own reputation but also my families as well. On top of this, students are told often that the school is first a family, which planted an eternal seed of school pride within students or worse, alienated students who did not feel a familial

The school collected awards and athletic accolades as these were actively advertised on the school’s many forms of social media. Students, while not required to be involved, were actively encouraged to be involved in not one but many school activities. While not a requirement, I cannot remember more than a handful of students who did not engage in extracurricular activities. My school encouraged busyness for a number of reasons that spanned from resume-building to keeping the students out of trouble to not create a negative image of themselves or the school. However, despite many opportunities to be involved, there was a deficit in who was offered special opportunities and positions of power compared to their classmates. As it appeared, there were a handful of favored students who dominated Student Council and were given special opportunities. As I have previously stated, my high school was made up of private grade schools coming together to form one unified high school. However, many students from the “richest,” most prestigious grade school used their status to their advantage: students from this school were the most popular, made up the largest portion of student council, and received special treatment. Having the support of these students, many having parents that were professors, doctors, and businesspeople, could lead to increased