Chapel Program Celebrates Community Kindness

1/23/2020

Members of the St. Stephen’s kindness committee held a special Chapel service on Jan. 21 to share “random acts of kindness” with the school community. Kindness is our school’s yearlong “theme” for the academic year.

Prior to the program, committee members had asked Upper School students to share with them specific acts of kindness they had experienced during the school year. Student participants Edbert Wu, Jordan Mendelson, Katherine Wilkey and Billal Lyzzaik each took turns sharing students’ submissions. The following are some of the responses they received:

“Teammates cheered me on during the last stretch of a cross country race. This really helped, as I realized that this race was not only for myself but also for the team.”
“When I dropped all of my stuff people came to help pick it all up.”
“When I had to miss a day of school, my friend sent me pictures of class notes that I missed. It made coming back to school the next day a lot easier.”
“It was the beginning of the year and I was feeling kind of alone, but then someone I didn’t know that well just waved hello to me — it made my day.”
“I’m new this year and was very scared about being a boarder and my relationship with my roommate…. She showed me friendship and kindness that I never experienced with my other friends before. For example, I was really stressed about my grades in history, but she reviewed the materials with me and helped me raise my grade.”
“At the end of a group project, my partner, who I hadn’t known prior to the project, took the time to thank me for working with her. Group projects can be awkward, so her acknowledgment was really refreshing.”
“My friends accept me when I cannot accept myself.”
“A person has consistently asked throughout the year how I'm actually doing. Like, past the "yeah I'm good" sort of phase. That shows true devotion to creating an actual friendship.”
“My friend helped me to do my homework and study for Spanish. It was really kind since she could have been doing her homework or something else. Instead she helped me.”
“My friends reached out to me at a time that was difficult. I’m so glad to have people I can rely on.”

After sharing these random acts of kindness, Mendelson expressed deep appreciation for everyone who took the time to respond to the committee’s call for submissions. “We really appreciate all the heartfelt responses we received from the student body, so thanks for taking the time to write about something personal and meaningful,” she said.

“We would like to advance the idea that being kind can be a radical act that echoes the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. statement, ‘The time is always ripe to do right,” added Mendelson, who then called upon everyone to take a moment to think about a time during the year that someone had been kind to them.

After a brief pause she then made a final request: “Now think about how you can continue to spread kindness from today forward within our school community.”

Many thanks to everyone who participated in this special Chapel program, which helped raise awareness that sometimes small acts of compassion can be deeply meaningful to others.

The yearlong school theme initiative was introduced in 2014 in an effort to focus our school community on a common positive goal. To date, yearlong themes have included Peace (2014–15), Respect (2015–16), Beyond Tolerance (2016-17), Listen (2017–18), Welcome (2018–19) and Kindness (2019–20).

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