Growing Highland’s Community

When walking through the doors of Highland, what’s the first thing you notice? For me, it’s not the red brick walls or the color of the tile, and it’s not even the big ram statue, it’s the bustling sound of people. I believe that the people at Highland are what bring life to the school.
Highland has been around for 68 years, and every year has brought something new to the table. Whether it be a dramatic increase in academic success, a jump in student enrollment, or an increased interest in school clubs, each and every person contributes to what makes Highland, well, Highland.
Highland as a school has committed to nurturing excellence and equity within its walls. Part of that commitment means creating a welcoming community where students feel like they belong. Specifically, Highland principal, Jeremy Chatterton is trying to build a more inclusive environment.
“I think what I’m really proud of here is, and I don’t think it’s always been perfect, and I don’t think we’re perfect in any stretch, but I think we do a really good job of respecting and being curious about different cultures,” Chatterton said.
What makes Highland Highland? This is what this page of Rambler will be exploring this year as we dive deeper into what makes Highland a rich cultural community. The first article will be about peoples’ overall contribution to the culture of Highland and other issues will feature individuals who stand out as they help to build on that.
A crucial part of the high school social experience for many students is finding peers with whom they connect with, finding a community to belong to. Not everybody finds it during high school, but it can be a great place to start.
There are different definitions of community, but I consider community to be a feeling of friendship among a group of individuals who share common interests. Each person contributes to the Highland community and the best way to continue to build up the Highland community is to get more people involved. New connections lead to new ideas which lead to prosperity.
Friendship begins with simple interaction. Maybe you realize that you and another person both love basketball or you both love Beyonce or you realize that you both like to paint. Whatever the reason for that initial interaction, that first step can be all that you need to make a new friend.
Almost everybody has at least one thing in common so if we can foster opportunities to capitalize on that to make connections, by building on those things we can grow the number of positive relationships at Highland. That doesn’t mean Highland’s goal is to have everyone become best friends because that’s unrealistic, but the goal is to nurture excellence.
If these relationships mentioned in this article can continue to be built, then more people will have those hallway buddies who they say hi to on the way to class and that strengthens a community.
Sports at Highland is one way for people to come together. The school tries to offer as many opportunities to get involved as possible. There are times that Highland struggles to offer that but there is always at least one sport that doesn’t make cuts available to students each season. That’s something Chatterton is proud of, and he hopes to offer more opportunities in the future.
There are some teams that require more training to participate than others and Highland wants to make more opportunities available to students who want to be on those teams. Chatterton talked about how not everyone can go to dance company auditions and expect to make it without prior training. And he talked about that because it’s one of those things that you can’t do without a history in it. So, if there are people interested in it but can’t do it, Highland needs to focus on making it more available.
“That’s more of a community involvement thing that we need to work on,” Chatterton said. “How can we do a better job as a community to offer those types of chances to students and families that can’t afford it when those students are at a younger age?”
Chatterton wants to offer more opportunities so we can strengthen and grow our community. Hopefully, we’ll be able to see him follow through in doing so.
Every school has its own culture and within this school, everybody builds their own culture of Highland. They build memories that they’ll think back on in 20 years and remember. As a third-year varsity cheerleader, I know that for me, I’ll always remember everybody whom I’ve ever cheered with even if I don’t speak to them later down the road.
We all create our own individual experiences and when we come together as a school, those experiences combine to create a positive environment and that’s what Chatterton is trying to create. That’s why the administration wants everybody to be involved because it’s what builds a community.
Even if participating in sports isn’t your forte, there are still opportunities to be involved. Highland offers a vast number of different clubs, and everyone is welcome to start new clubs if they are interested in doing so. Some clubs being …
The Highland student section is another opportunity for more students to get involved in the community. Everyone is welcome to participate in the cheers and to sit in a section designated for them and their peers. School spirit is the reason for this section so the more people, the better. More people means more school spirit and that’s always a positive thing.
At football games, the cheerleaders and SBO Spirit Chair work together to embody the voice of the school. In the past few years, the Spirit Chairs have done an excellent job at uniting the student section and this year’s Spirit Chair, Fetu’u Brown, hopes to continue that legacy.
“I want there to be lots of love and support for each other,” Brown said. “I want the school spirit at Highland to be bigger than ever!”
Shared interests are just one of the many ways to make connections, shared cultural identities can also bring people together. Culture can be viewed as or can include things like traditions, beliefs, arts, and achievements of a particular community. Highland is culturally rich and people have created clubs to unite people with similar heritage. However, these clubs are not exclusive and to promote inclusivity any ally is welcome to join and encouraged to join these clubs if they want to.
“Per a report by U.S. News & World Report, we are the sixth ranked high school in the Salt Lake Valley in terms of just academic overall and community overall engagement,” Chatterton said. “And the schools that we’re behind are all of your kind of wealthy East side schools so Corner Canyon, Brighton, Alta, Olympus, and Skyline. So, to be kind of in that realm, I think that is really a positive thing.”
Highland continues to evolve its identity through school pride and representation. It’s important to continue to ask ourselves what makes Highland Highland? Because is it the students, the staff, the building, or is it what we achieve when we come together?