Rachel's Challenge to Students: Be Kind to Others

Students at Gregory Middle School were given a challenge Monday. They were asked to start a chain reaction of kindness and compassion, with the hope that others' lives would be positively impacted.

Rachel Scott believed that a life impacted by kindness and compassion could create a positive chain reaction in the world. Scott was the first student killed in the Columbine High School shootings on April 20, 1999.

Though Rachel died that day, her goal of touching others' lives around the world has come true through Rachel's Challenge, a foundation her family started in her honor. The organization continues to make Rachel's dreams a reality.

Rachel wrote about her ethics and codes of life. After her death, her family found many of her writings and eventually turned them into a program that helps guide students toward living a more compassionate, thoughtful life.

Jon Prensner, of Colorado Springs, Colo., was the presenter for the program Monday. He has been delivering Rachel's message to students and groups around the country since July.

"It is such an incredible story of kindness and compassion, it meant a lot to me to be involved," he said.

The program urges students to be kind to others, he said. Many children are so used to being a part of a clique and acting a certain way, but the challenge presents them with the opportunity to change, to be kinder.

Rachel's Challenge has five points:

1) Looking for the best in people and in others. Don't be prejudiced, but try to be open to others.

2) Daring to dream, which means coming up with a dream, writing those goals down and keeping a journal to track them.

3) Choosing positive influences. Drawing positive people into a circle and specifically reaching out to those who are disabled, new to a school, picked-on or put down.

4) Using kind words. Rachel believed little acts of kindness could create huge results.

5) Telling those you love and those who matter to you how much they mean to you.

Michelle Cevera, a guidance counselor at the school, said the message is to create a more positive environment, to help the students build empathy and support and to teach them to be respectful of students who may have disabilities or who are new to school.

Throughout the program, students learned about what happened at Columbine, what Rachel Scott believed in, how she lived her life and treated others, what her hopes and dreams were and how she affected others.

Rachel read The Diary of Anne Frank and began keeping journals because of the book. Through her journals, her family was able to learn about her hopes for the future. The program also makes a connection between Anne Frank and Rachel Scott, both of whom used their words to touch many lives, and both of whom were killed because of the same hatred and prejudices espoused by Adolph Hitler. (The Columbine killers used Hitler's birthday as the date of the shooting.)

"(Rachel's) goal was to touch people's hearts around the world," Prensner said, adding that more than 14 million people have heard her message.

Rachel asked, "How many of us have enough trust, strength and faith to believe we could do the impossible?" Rachel wrote in her journal: "I won't be labeled as average."

Prensner asked the students to think of those who meant the most to them and whether they owed someone an apology or needed to forgive, — and to be sure to let the five or 10 people on their list know how they felt. The majority of students said they would follow through.

A "Friends of Rachel" club was going to meet after the program to discuss ways the students could meet Rachel's Challenge, with the students taking the lead in the process.

Kathie Battle, a sixth-grade teacher, said she thought the program had a positive message for students. Sixth grade is a time when students can be very judgmental of one another, she said. The program, rather than staying not to bully someone, provides more constructive things students can do.

"I hope that my sixth graders would look for the good in others," Battle said.