Nineteen West Marion Elementary School students were recently named Page Ambassadors WMES Principal Daniel Mattingly announced.
Members of the group include: JT Gootee, Elijah Lyvers, Grayson Myers, Raela Miles, Ansley Thomas, Kaylen Bartley, Kylie Edelen, Emma Thompson, Ali Mattingly, Lexi Rose, Emery Mudd, Clay Miles, Emily Osbourne, Grady Scott, Eric Blanford,Claire Hutchins, Amelia Mattingly, Kaleb Rust, and Amelia Lamkin.
Although the student leadership group has existed in past years, Mattingly noted that this was the first “true year” of the program because of interruptions to the previous two school years.
“The vision is for them to develop leadership skills at an early age and do that in the spirit of service to the school,” Mattingly said.
Before being named a Page Ambassador, students completed an application and went through an interview process conducted by members of the MCPS Student Ambassadors -- a group of high school students who serve as student leaders for the school district.
For most, it was their first interview experience.
“That’s probably one of the best experiences they can have as a Page Ambassador is to fill out that application and go through that interview,” Mattingly said. “They were pretty nervous, but in the end they were all very successful.”
Since the selection process, Mattingly has met with the students to discuss Page Ambassador responsibilities such as helping lead morning announcements, updating the school marquee, serving as student greeters in the morning, or even displaying encouraging notes around the school.
And he’s hoping that this experience will lead those students to remain involved in leadership opportunities throughout the remainder of their public school experience.
“I plan for these students to make their school experience richer and develop their leadership skills so that when they go to middle school, the Knight Academy, and high school and they have leadership opportunities they can say, ‘I did that at West Marion and I’m going to keep doing those things.’”