Standing up to be individual catalysts for good

Scott Backovich's message to Cheney Middle School students gathered in the school's commons last Wednesday morning was pretty simple - be a catalyst for good. His reason for flying over 1,000 miles to appear before the 450-plus sixth through eighth graders boiled down to one simple question.

"What are your going to do about it?" the Los Angeles-based motivational speaker asked. "That's it."

Backovich's appearance was part of the school's "Leadership Day 2018," a school-wide effort to give students a day-long opportunity to take part in activities and discussions on topics they might not otherwise experience over the course of the school year.

"The objective of Leadership Day is to intentionally focus all of our attention/instruction for one specific day on our mission for the year of everyday leadership," assistant principal and organizer Eli Holm wrote in describing the event.

The keynote activity for the day was Backovich, who spoke not only to students but also to staff members prior to the assembly. He took part in various sessions throughout the day with different classes as well as the school's associated student body group.

But it was his roughly 45-minute address that was a catalyst for the students. The 20-something speaker used humor and storytelling to transition into moments of seriousness that centered on inclusion - something everyone seeks throughout their lives.

"I've never met one student who wanted to come to school and not be recognized," Backovich said. "I've never met a single human being who wanted to show up and not be part of something."

Backovich told the students that humans seem "wired to be pessimistic," asking at one point if there were negative people in the school - to which the students responded with a loud, collective "Yes!" Their "yes" got even louder when he asked if there were rumors that spread around the school about people.

When Backovich asked students how many of them had heard complaints in the last 24 hours, many hands went up. More hands rose when he asked about the last 12 hours, and virtually everyone's hands seemed to be in the air upon the last hour.

"Most people complain," Backovich said. "People don't feel empowered to stand up and confront negativity."

Backovich encouraged students to have strength to do the latter, illustrating the point with the story of an assembly he spoke at where he asked students if everything was alright in their school. One young man didn't seem to be responding positively, and Backovich said he asked him to stand up in front of the several thousand students and say what was on his mind.

"I really wish people would just love each other," the student told Backovich and the crowd. "I really wish people would just be kind to each other.

The students reacted by slowly acknowledging each other positively, and gradually stood to applaud the young man for the 10 seconds of time he took to voice his feelings.

"Imagine if people took 10 seconds to positively acknowledge somebody," Backovich said.

Backovich ended by encouraging students to take this time to seek out those who go about school with their heads down, who pass in the hallways off to the side to avoid contact or sit alone by themselves at lunch or other activities and spend some time acknowledging them in a positive fashion. He emphasized that positive change comes from the individual.

"Nobody here will be remembered by the number of sports they played, or the clubs they were in or the fact they sat through a motivational speaker," Backovich said. "Every single one of you will be remembered by the people you help."

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].