The Streaks Leadership program, formerly known as Olweus, has been working to gain both teacher and student participation this year. Streaks Leadership is a program that deals with bullying prevention and school climate issues. It is a place to discuss everyday problems students have at school. Leadership also discusses things students want to change within our school. So far, they have only met a few times near the beginning of the school year. Main topics the program has discussed during the meetings have been bullying, peace and school spirit. The most recent Streak Leadership meeting was focused on school spirit, which gave counselor Chris Ward a big amount of feedback.

“I got a ton of feedback on school spirit, to the point where we talked about the Red Sea. Many students expressed their feelings about not being included in Red Sea events. We then had leaders of the Red sea go out and talk to other students on how they can make it more welcoming,” Ward said.

Last year, Streaks Leadership was known as Olweus. Part of the name change was over pronunciation and spelling difficulties. Olweus is still used, but it focuses more on bullying prevention. Leaders here at HHS wanted students to understand that the program isn’t only about bullying prevention, but about being a leader and making our school a better place.  

“The reason we changed the name was because we want people to understand that this is about becoming a leader in your school. It’s about becoming an advocate for important things that are going on around the school.” Ward said.

The new name is designed to let students know that they have the opportunity to be a leader too. The difference between Streaks Leadership and Olweus is that last year’s meetings were based more on giving people information, while this year, students have the opportunity to say what would be more helpful to our school.

“I think it helps raise school spirit and reduce the amount of bullying and bystanders,” freshman Brianna Kelley said.

Students here have the opportunity to be an ambassador or coordinator for the program. Ward is the leader for the program, along with other students who assist him. Throughout the school year, teachers point out students to Ward on who they believe would be a great leader. Being recommended by someone else doesn’t always have to be the case. Anyone at HHS can participate in being a leader just by having a talk with Ward. Ambassadors meet every Monday after school, while coordinators meet more periodically.

The next Streak Leadership will be on Thursday, Oct. 29.