Imagine you’re sitting in class and the teacher is taking attendance. You already know that you have a unique name and you’re hoping that the teacher will pronounce it correctly. Then the teacher calls it out. Wrong again. You feel deflated and misunderstood. You notice how other students’ names are easily pronounced, except yours. You may also feel as if it is unfair when this occurs. Unfortunately, this happens too often.
“When my name is mispronounced it’s embarrassing and annoying,” said senior Amani Credit.
Amani is hoping this program will last to help all students that are just now finding out about it or new students entering the school. She believes the program will be successful.
“They’re going to start loving their name more and actually feeling proud, confident, and respected,” she said.
How the program works you might be asking? Well, students go up to a table that is sitting in the cafeteria. There are two counselors at the table. You tell them your name and they’ll ask for your student information. After that you’ll record yourself saying your name and it’ll be put in the system.
The staff believes that this program will help the students be more understood and be more comfortable. It is unclear how long the program will be in place, but the school is determined to included any student who wants to participate.
Miss Wilkerson who works in the attendance office, hopes that this program will help.
“Students would feel a lot more confident about their name and staff would understand the meaning of their name,” she explained.
A student named Kahvi Fountain believes that this program will help students feel more comfortable and understood. Kahvi claims that he gets his name mispronounced more than everyone can imagine.
“The impact on the program is going to be very effective and help so many students that go through this a lot,” said Fountain.
Wilkerson also believes that the staff will benefit, because it will help them develop better relationships with their students.
“This also gives the staff a better understanding of our students and makes them feel more valued.” said Wilkerson.
