Category: News

Winners of the dude. be nice nominations stand for a photo

Coordinator of dude. be nice, Becca Hammerman, stands next to one of the posters in Sprague

A Winning Week of Nice Dudes

By Campbell Kelly

Kindness spread like the flu through the SEM campus on the week of January 7-11 and even helped teams in their triumphs! “Dude. be nice” week showed that there is so much good in the world and on our campus. Throughout the week, a plethora of events, all coordinated by Becca Hammerman ‘19, brought out kindness and the “dude. be nice” message throughout our SEM community. The week of goodwill and great deeds was geared towards inspiring people to go out of their way to be nice and appreciating those who embody the “dude. be nice” message.

Hammerman’s inspiration for “dude. be nice” week was born at her beachtown. “I saw a ‘dude. be nice’ t-shirt and I told my parents about it,” she explained. “By the end of the day, we all had ‘dude. be nice’ shirts and we really liked the message it was trying to send!”

The “dude. be nice” slogan actually belongs to a positive vibes apparel company. It aims to radiate kindness and brighten people’s days through its clothes that all bear positive messages. Eventually, Hammerman got to meet, talk to, and know the founder and discovered that this clothing kindness campaign could land at her school. Well, it did last year!

Now in its second year of the “dude. be nice” project, the week-long program kicked off on a Monday, when Hammerman and her crew laid out the plans for the week. Almost every day was “Support a Sport” and the encouragement from students from students and faculty apparently paid off! Numerous records were broken on the swim team in their meet against Coughlin and they took the 75-15 win! Boys hockey won against Hull 6-0. Boys basketball won against Redeemer 44-42 with Dmitri Gnall’s thousandth point!

Numerous students, faculty, and staff were nominated for acts of kindness such as always willing to help with homework, holding the door, and being there for someone when they are down. Hammerman and her good vibe tribe sold shirts at lunch during the week and gave out hot chocolate on Tuesday. On Thursday, the artisan club and Ms. Ayers hosted the SEM community to create medallions of clay with messages to motivate kindness. At the end of the week, the people who most epitomize the “dude. be nice” message, Mr. Tony Yurska, Mrs. Rachel Bartron, Nikolai Stefanov ‘19, Dora Softic ‘20, Hope Austin ‘21, and Daniel Irwin ‘22, were given flowers and applauded during an assembly in recognition for their numerous and meaningful gestures of kindness.

Students, like Halle Kehl ‘19, welcomed the extra boost of positivity. “‘Dude. be nice’ week is a great way of bringing our community together and embracing our motto of truth, beauty, and goodness,” Kehl shared. Remembering to say something nice to our peers and teachers, saying please and thank you, and cleaning up messy lunch tables are more examples of the on campus kindness.

The week of events, Paige Parsons ‘20 revealed, brought out the best in all of us. “I thought ‘dude. be nice’ week was such a positive and amazing week for SEM. Spreading kindness and optimism throughout the school and campus really created a happy and loving environment and encouraged everyone to treat others the way they should be treated. ‘Dude. be nice’ week is always an awesome week at SEM!”

Hammerman’s hope for the future is that SEM’s “dude. be nice” week gets bigger and influences more and more people to spread kindness on and off of our campus. “I know as the years continue to go on, it will continue to get more extreme and will impact our community on a wider scale.” The impact on SEM was undeniable. After all, kindness is contagious and those who caught it and spread it during “dude. be nice” week felt instantly better by benevolence.

Ava Hazzouri ’22 and her grandmother pose for a picture at lunch(photo courtesy of Campbell Kelly ’22).

Kate Getz ’21 is joined by her four grandparents to celebrate the day(photo courtesy of Campbell Kelly ’22).

Jessie Miller ’22 takes her grandmother to class with her after lunch(photo courtesy of Campbell Kelly ’22).

Mia Magnotta ’21 and Marco Magnotta ’22 enjoy lunch with their grandparents(photo courtesy of Campbell Kelly ’22).

By Campbell Kelly ‘21

        A smattering of gray was sprinkled throughout the upper campus of Wyoming Seminary on October 3, 2018.  It was Grandparents’ Day. The warm bond between students and grandparents was felt as soon as they were united with hugs and kisses at the Kirby Center.  Each grandparent received a keepsake of a Wyoming Seminary keychain while entering the KCCA. The special day began with chapel which included moving performances by the chorale, meaningful readings by William Berger ‘19  and Claire Conlan Evans ‘52, and an inspiring invocation about our past, present, and future by Reverend Carrick. After chapel, the students, many of them holding a hand of an arm of an older loved one, patiently made their way over to the gymnasium for a lunch filled with laughter and love.

   Next, off to class with the new students for the day, our grandparents.  Typically, most students are out of breath after sprinting up the three flights of stairs at Nesbitt Hall to get to class!  But on this day, there was no rush. Grandparents took their time and gingerly ascended the stairs. Aided by their canes and helping hands, the determined grandparents all prevailed as they made it to the top!  

 Once in class, the grandparents looked delighted to live the daily life of a Sem student and particular the Young and Young-at-Heart to Remember.  Mary Yvonne Butera Ballard made the trip from Hagerstown, Maryland. She beamed after seeing her granddaughter, Jessie Miller ‘22, shine as a student.  “I am letting my granddaughter know that I believe education is important. My favorite part was watching Jessie answer a question correctly in Geometry!”  Another grandmother, Donnie Norris of Lehman, Pennsylvania, soaked up all of the sights her granddaughter, Sommer Zier ‘21, showed her. Norris revealed, “I feel it was a privilege to be here. I am happy she is here and I hope she continues her education here.  I liked her Biology class—it was interesting. She gave us a tour of some of the dorms. The campus is very nice! It is not like when I went to school!”

  As meaningful as it was for the grandparents, it was just as significant for the grandchildren.  Kate Getz ‘21 exclaimed, “It meant a lot for me to have all of my grandparents there with me because it is such a special day to celebrate them and all that they do for their grandkids.  I know all of my grandparents really enjoyed their day and I think all grandparents that were on campus did. It means a lot to them to spend some quality time with their grandkids and kind of get to see what they do in a normal day here at Sem.”

 After an abundance of hugs and kisses, it was finally time to bid each other farewell.  The day had given us all so much. Most of all, valuable time and incredible memories shared between the young and young-at-heart as generations connected at Sem.

Sem’s 2018 Dance Marathon

By Reese Butcher ’20

Sem Dance Marathon is well-known and well-celebrated event. With around 300 kids turning up this year and over $31,000 raised, participants and coordinators alike were ecstatic at this record-breaking high. Over the last 7 years, Sem DM has raised over $135,000 all to be donated to the Janet Weis Children’s Miracle Network.

To kick off the week before Sem DM, there was an assembly complete with all you need to know before attending your first DM, a faculty flash mob during Chapel, and Tunes for Tots at lunch all week where you could request a song for $.50 or skip the current song for a $1. Next, Dance for a Donut and Society Day competitions brought some fun competitiveness to light where you could donate a minimum of a dollar to your society for points and dance to get a free donut. Finally, after school on Friday, there was a dunk tank where you could sink faculty members, or even students, for $1 or more depending on how close you wanted to be.

All of this was put together by a newly formed committee. Even though Sem DM has been going on for a while, this committee had its first (and successful) year due to DM normally being a government-run event. By pulling the organization and execution out of the Student Government, the hope was that more people could get involved and could be focused more specifically on one task like morale or promotion. Based on the numbers and fun had, this will definitely continue to be the new style of running Sem DM.

The event itself is jam-packed of activities, like Lip Sync Battles, Inflatable Bull (Shark) Riding, and the Morale Dance, but the real stars of the show are the miracle kids. This year, three kids came back to share their stories and have fun. Rylee Bond, Emma Shaffer, and Emma Straub each had time on stage where all people in attendance attentively listened as they each shared their stories and then lead an activity like Simon Says. Afterwards, the kids were free to go around and take pictures, play games, and dance, and there were always students ready to make their night the best it could be.

To cap off the already amazing night, students gathered around to bid on a chance to pie a faculty member in the face and then witness the grand reveal of how much money was raised. Ten students walked out on stage, all holding posters turned towards them so one wouldn’t be able to see the numbers. One by one, the numbers were revealed, 6… 5… dot(.)… 3… and so on. Cheers erupted as $21,403.56 was displayed. But wait, that wasn’t right. The students were then told there was a mistake and the number 2 needed to switch with 3 and reveal the true amount raised ($31, 402.58). Students cheered even louder and tears of joy were shed. To finally end the night. students went to a rave to celebrate all the money they just raised for the Children’s Miracle Network.