Allow me to take you on a journey to a Niles West a long long time ago, circa 2004.  There was no school spirit.  Assemblies were attended by about half of the student population.  Students didn’t love pep assemblies; they dreaded them.  About this time, I joined the Student Union as a sponsor.  When I was in high school, I loved pep assemblies.  I knew what school spirit was, and I was really bummed that the kids at West, who deserved to have the same experience, weren’t getting it.  So I made it my goal to bring school spirit to West. I wanted to see a time when kids wanted to see a pep assembly.  I wanted to see Niles West have school pride.  West has a lot to be proud of.Student Union, later becoming Student Government, made it our cause to bring school spirit to Niles West.  We knew that the only thing that could bring a little spirit to a school was competition.  So we created class competitions.  We started hallway decorating contests.  We started cheering competitions.  We revved up the competition to a crazy level.

And West responded.  Kids became interested.  Students attended pep assemblies.  Now we have a new problem of seating all students in the stands.

Fast forward to the class of 2011.  Things get ugly.  Seniors decide to riot in the hallways.  They run through the hallways tearing down other class decorations. They scream, yell, and almost trample people in the hallways.  One of these people was a very pregnant teacher.  This was a signal that this should be the end of the competitions.

I would like to challenge you.  School spirit isn’t just about thinking that you are better than your peers because you’ve spent a different number of years within these walls.  School spirit is about recognizing what you have here at Niles West and celebrating that.  You attend a school filled with actual diversity.  We have no majority, no minority.  You will never understand how incredible this is until you leave these walls.

Most of you will go on to attend a university and will be shocked at how little culture there will be.  I promise.  You will miss this place.  You will realize how incredibly lucky you are to attend a school where the teachers are incredible, where you have any resource you might need, where you have a STEM program, a Literacy Center, support staff that care for you.  You have so much to be proud of as a unit.  You should have school spirit.  Because as long as you all try to just celebrate yourself and not yourselves, you don’t have it quite right.  I think you can get it right.  It just takes the right kind of kids to step up and lead.

I want you to think about any other group that you might cheer for.  A Big 10 university like University of Illinois, or a sports team like the White Sox or Cubs.  When you go watch them in the stands, do you see them chant for a specific subgroup? Or do you see them just chant for the entire team… the entire entity?  Do you really think that wearing a black t-shirt on one day will set you apart as the class that “did it right”?

I think the class that can get Niles West to come together as a group, as one team, and wear red and white with pride would have much more to be proud of.  Consider the gauntlet thrown.