Pictured left to right are Club President David Kafitz, Dr. Hampton, and Jay Downs.
By Rick Abercrombie
During the previous school year Irmo High School and St. Andrews Optimists collaborated to create a recognition program for deserving students. “Promise Yourself” became the name of that effort.
The foundation of the awards was the application of individual elements of the Optimist Creed to how students conduct themselves in everyday school life.
On October 16, Dr. Kaaren Hampton, the IHS Principal, updated the Optimist Club on how this school year’s renewal of the program will be designed and implemented. Elements of the Optimist Creed are singled out as monthly themes and are given a descriptive attribute. Then classroom teachers identify and nominate students who embody that character trait. Each month there is one award winner for each grade level.
For example, one line of the Creed is “Promise yourself to be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.” The attribute associated with that line is “respect.”
A second example from the Creed: “Promise yourself to be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.” That attribute is “courage.”
Toward the end of the school year, there will be an assembly at the high school where students receive awards for how well they have demonstrated the principles of the Creed.
Dr. Hampton told Optimists that “Irmo High School’s vision is that 100 percent of our students will graduate with a diploma or credential and a post-secondary plan.”
To that end, IHS’s near-term goal is to surpass an 80 percent graduation rate.
The Optimist Club was also treated to a virtual tour of the newly completed building addition. Cafeteria service has will be relocated to the second floor of the new addition, and a “small business incubator” will then occupy the old cafeteria space.
Optimist Jay Downs worked with Dr. Hampton to design the current iteration of the Promise Yourself recognition awards.
