Earlier this month, the school was awarded as having the most outstanding Middle School Character Education Program in Camden County
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Principal Alice Malloy says that school administration, approximately four years ago, was seeking a way to better make its theme stand out to help it be more embraced by its students.
“We wanted to come up with an acronym to have a theme for the year, and we’ve since kept it as an evergreen theme,” Malloy said. “We really hammered it home the first year with the kids, and have been doing it ever since, and now they don’t even think about it.”
The school eventually decided on the acronym “SOAR,” which stands for seeking opportunities to serve, owning your education, acting responsibly and respecting all people.
In recent years, students have embraced the theme so wholeheartedly that, when learning about voting during the last presidential election, they voted to name the schools eagle mascot Soar.
Having been successful and an accurate representation of the character the school looks to bring out in its students, the acronym and theme have stuck ever since.
Fittingly, earlier this month OLMC was applauded as having the most outstanding Middle School Character Education Program in Camden County by the Camden County Technical School District.
The award is co-sponsored by the school district, the Camden County Board of Freeholders and Camden County College and comes with a $500 cash prize to go toward the funding of a future character education program.
Charene Scheeper, assistant principal at CCTS and a member of the application review team, received and reviewed applications from schools across Camden County before picking OLMS as the winner.
“Representatives from middle schools in Camden County submitted applications that described their character education programs,” said Scheeper. “A team met to review each application, and based on the information received from the schools, the character education program offered at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel was selected as the most outstanding this year.”
Activities the school has completed over the past several years to assist with character development include painting a mural at the school’s main entrance, reading books that demonstrate respect toward others, making holiday cards for families at the Ronald McDonald House, coordinating a Thanksgiving food drive and more.
Staff and students were greeted with the news of the award at an assembly in the school’s gymnasium with administration from sponsoring bodies speaking on the importance of developing strong character and the exceptional aspects they noticed at OLMC.
Malloy says students at the school work on improving all aspects of themselves as they grow up and are continuing to improve each and every year.
“Character development is the cornerstone of our educational philosophy and we strive to educate the mind, body, and spirit of all of our students,” said Malloy. “It is especially prevalent in our middle school where making good choices can be influenced by peer pressure. Respect and caring work hand-in-hand, and all students are given daily opportunities to witness and practice these virtues.”
Malloy says a portion of the award money will go toward further assisting in its work with volunteering at the Vineland Veterans’ Home, which older students at the school have typically visited twice per year since the character development program launched four years ago.
While OLMC was the award winner, over a dozen middle schools in Camden County were also named as honorable mentions for their own programs as well.
