Broward Private School Participates in Great Kindness Challenge

Sagemont Students Spread Kindness Around Broward Private School Campus and Community

As reported in Our City of Weston Magazine

By Stacey Bomser

Kindness is part of the culture at The Sagemont School, which is why students, teachers and administrators on the Lower School Campus accepted the Great Kindness Challenge.

“We embraced our culture of kindness through participating in over 15,000 acts of kindness school-wide ranging from creating cards for children in hospitals, sharing kindness quotes, and exchanging pen pal letters with one of our sister schools,” states Guidance Counselor Maritza Zea. “We tracked our acts of kindness using the Great Kindness Challenge checklist. We are proud to say that students, parents, teachers and staff all came together to help us be a Kindness Certified school once again.”

This was the second year Sagemont participated in the Great Kindness Challenge. It’s a proactive and positive bullying prevention initiative that improves school climate and increases student engagement. This year, over 5 million students worldwide committed 250 million acts of kindness. At Sagemont, every student, teacher and staff member performed ten acts of kindness every day for one week, for a total of 15,000 acts of kindness.

To help students fulfill their goal of each completing 50 acts of kindness, children were able to participate in Kindness Stations during recess. In addition, each grade participated in a different kindness activity. For example, Early Childhood Education students colored pictures for the front office staff, maintenance workers and bus drivers, while fourth graders drew pictures with words of encouragement for residents in a local nursing home.

Ms. Zea hopes these activities will inspire Sagemont students to continue performing acts and words of kindness throughout the year. “When practicing kind act after kind act, students make kindness a habit. As kindness becomes a habit, this can effect real change in their learning environment. The ‘living kindness’ conditions will enhance the students’ understanding and their ability to think critically about ways to generate more kindness on an individual and global level.”

To spread awareness about the program and Sagemont’s efforts to promote kindness across campus and the community, fifth grader Daniel Marmolejo and Principal Monica Vigna appeared on NBC 6’s 6 In The Mix with Roxanne Vargas.

Sagemont students are already looking forward to taking on next year’s Great Kindness Challenge. The Great Kindness Challenge was created by Kids for Peace to provide schools with a tool for creating a positive school environment. To learn more, visit www.greatkindnesschallenge.org.

Weston Elementary School Secures Grant for Butterfly Garden

Sagemont Students Secure Grant to Become the First Weston Elementary School With a Butterfly Garden

As reported in February 2016 Our City of Weston Magazine By Stacey Bomser

As a “lifer” at The Sagemont School, Carolina Alzamora has fond memories of her days on the Lower School Campus. The 11^th grader wanted to leave a legacy that would last long after she graduated. Thanks to her efforts, future Sagemont students will enjoy the beauty of a butterfly garden.

Carolina says the idea of creating a butterfly garden particularly appealed to her because “it was educational and involved younger students.” In fact, fourth grade students helped build the garden, personalizing it with their names.

In order to receive free plants and program support, Carolina applied for the Environmental Protection – Habitat Centennial Garden Project grant from the Youth Environmental Alliance. With the support and endorsement of school administrators and Science Teacher Sheilla Galloway, Carolina secured grants to build two different types of gardens – a basic butterfly garden and a monarch mania.

Carolina credits the younger students for making her dream a reality. “The students, under the lead of Mrs. Galloway, designed the landscape area where they planted the bushes. The final design, an irregular, oval shaped area, came out as a very creative and distinct spot.”

One of her favorite aspects of the butterfly garden was the brick border. “Each participant wrote their name on a brick. I had the honor to write mine on one too. In my opinion, this personalized the garden,” notes Carolina. “After this school year, students may visit the Lower School Campus and see their names and be reminded that they were part of this environmental and collaborative project.”

Carolina is appreciative of how the school embraced her project. She says the younger students did all of the digging and planting under the direction and supervision of a naturalist, environmental coordinator, and school staff, after attending an educational session.

According to Carolina, “The Sagemont Lower School truly adopted the butterfly garden. Sustainability was their commitment; to water, care and protect it, not only as part of the landscape of the school, but to show support to promote life and care for a healthy ecosystem.”

With the butterfly garden project now complete, Carolina is proud of her accomplishment. “It was a rewarding feeling to engage young students to be part of building this butterfly garden. Not only did they learn about how important butterflies are, but they excitedly contributed to support their ecosystem value.”

Carolina encourages other high school students to undertake similar projects, “where they engage younger students, making them part of a change or action  for a better world.”