An appreciation for a local school and a discovery about a health and physical activity-based award evolved into national recognition. The picture on the left shows Ishonte’ Allar, CPASS grad student, with Suncrest Middle School representatives. (Photo by The Dominion Post)
Allar discovered the Alliance for a Healthier Generation organization while attending a Childhood Obesity conference hosted by the Highmark Foundation in Pittsburgh last year. She decided to embrace it as a community service project for her fellowship.
“As a requirement, I have to do 40 hours community service each semester in order to keep my fellowship. It’s our own personal choice, so I chose to do this,” explained Allar.
Allar used to work at Suncrest Middle School and fell in love with the students and teachers. “They are always at the forefront and recognized for academics, so I wanted to bring attention to what they are doing in terms of health and physical education. Going in, I wasn’t sure if they would even qualify for any award, but wanted to see,” she said.
The award categories are based upon the components of comprehensive school physical activity programs. The group evaluates physical activity before, during, and after school, staff involvement, family and community involvement, health education, and nutrition. Allar approached health and physical education teacher Sean Watson since she knew that he was passionate about the subjects.
“I could not have done this without the help of Sean, Nicole Nastasi, health/nutrition teacher, and Nikki Kennedy, head cook. Together, during the fall and spring semester, we filled out an inventory to see what level of an award they qualified for,” Allar explained.
Allar kept the board office involved in the process. She realized that the school qualified for gold and silver awards in several categories, however, overall, received a bronze ranking. The school also qualified for the Let’s Move Active Schools Award.
Allar hopes that the experience inspires administration to make necessary changes to earn higher recognitions in the future. She envisions other schools in the county will follow suit and is ready to support their efforts.
“It would be really great if more schools started to start to think about the health of their students, as I think many times there is too much focus on standardized test scores. After all, what’s more important – high test scores or a healthy lifestyle that will improve their quality of life?” she added.
She explains that her next step is to help Suncrest Middle School obtain the USDA HUSSC award that not only comes with national recognition, but also monetary compensation. She plans to achieve this by the end of the school year.