Pocantico students learn what comes next: Portrait of a Graduate
Students at Pocantico Hills Central School District have a new initiative to look forward to in the coming years. While the district’s Portrait of a Graduate has been slowly rolled out, this month students learned more details and gained better understanding of what this means for them.
In two separate assemblies, one for elementary students and the other for middle school students, Principal Adam Brown and Middle School Assistant Principal Sheila DePaola shared what exactly the Portrait of a Graduate is, how it applies to students and the benefits they will glean from their participation.
“We’re going to be talk about something that’s really important that is happening across the whole school, “Mr. Brown told the younger students before his presentation. “It’s something you may not know too much about, but your teachers have known for a while and have been working together, looking at the way they work with you and the activities they do with you.”
With both groups the two administrators discussed what a Portrait of a Graduate is and the Pocantico specific traits that will be incorporated into the curriculum and activities in the coming years.
Portrait of a Graduate Traits
Communicator: Active listener, pays attention and encourages others to speak up to as well
Thinker: Innovative and Solution Orientated
Ethical: Do the right thing, being honest and making good choices
Inclusive: Being Welcoming, Respectful and Kind
Financially Literate: Think about how best to use your money, being an empowered consumer
“It’s a picture of what we want you to be like by the time you graduate,” Mr. Brown simplified the initiative. “Our goal is to teach you how to be your best self in all of these categories.”
Ms. DePaola reminded students that the HAWKS program the students have become familiar with does not replace the Portrait of a Graduate, but rather compliments it. In the HAWKS program, students commit to being Honest, Accountable, Wholehearted, Kind and Safe.
“So, when you go to high school your teacher is going to say ‘wow what an amazing kid,’” Mr. Brown told the younger students. “If we can work on those for the 10 years you are at Pocantico Hills, think about how amazing you are going to be in all those ways.”
“The idea of all of our traits, is to make sure in your future, wherever you go, you can soar!” Ms. DePaola said.
The two administrators reviewed the same Portrait of a Graduate traits with the middle school students, framing their presentation for a more mature audience.
Mr. Brown told older students the traits will benefit them in the future, both in their personal and professional lives.
He asked them to consider what kind of HAWKS will they be?
Being ethical, he explained not only guides how they act but also using their “internal compass,” or guiding principles.
In terms of being a thinker, Mr. Brown explained that the concept extends to students developing their creativity and developing new ways to approach a problem as well as being open minded.
“At the heart of our HAWKS initiative is inclusivity,” Mr. Brown said. “Promoting a sense of belonging, are we welcoming are we always welcoming,” he continued. “We want you to leave Pocantico on to the next chapter in your journey in high school and hear stories back saying, ‘wow your kids are different from the ones who grew up in their district.’”
“So far, all of these are things that make you the amazing person you are,” Mr. Brown said, adding that they are not necessarily lessons that happen in their classrooms, but they will come to recognize the traits as they come up in the work they do.
Ms. DePaola reminded the eighth graders how they have already incorporated these traits in their lives, especially during the class trip to Washington, D.C.
“I think you do all of this naturally,” she said, noting how they thought about budgeting their money or communicating with one another.
“I am so impressed with where our graduates are,” she said. “We want you to be successful.”
Mr. Brown explained that success means different things, not necessarily monetary success. He said it includes developing healthy relationships with friends and family, that they feel good about themselves and the world around them. As well as being supportive and living independently when the time comes, and these traits are ways to help them achieve all of that.