By Greg Chrapek
WKTV Contributor
greer@wktv.org
It was a celebration of character last Friday at Wyoming High School as the school community came together for the Alpha Wolf 11 Champions of Character assembly.
The Wyoming High School Alpha Wolf 11 Champions of Character assembly takes place twice a year, in the fall and spring, and recognizes students in all four grades for kindness, compassion and leadership. Two students in each class are chosen by their fellow students and staff to receive the awards at a school-wide assembly.
A Wyoming High School Alpha Wolf 11 is defined as any of the 1,200 students who try and make a conscientious effort to make others feel they are valued for the right reasons, in the best way possible. It is a recognition of not how good someone is at some things like grades, sports or extracurricular activities, but it’s strictly on how the student treats others.
This spring’s Alpha Wolf 11 Champion of Character honorees include, from the freshmen class, Axel Arevalo Baires and Shaynie Williams, sophomores Jessica Arellano-Cisneros and Jackson Bisard, juniors Uriel Diaz and Yaretzi Martinez-Maldonado and seniors Gegni Yaretzi-Martinez and Salena Truong.
“Alpha Wolf 11 is one of our points of pride in Wyoming,” said Wyoming Public Schools Superintendent Craig Hoekstra, “because it’s about being a good human being. It’s not about being a 4.0 student or being the star athlete. Certainly, all of that’s important and we celebrate that too, but this is a celebration of just being a great person, and how staff pours into our kids and how kids treat each other certainly in our school, but then we’re preparing them to be a great human being beyond high school as well.
“So as they go off into the work force, into the military or off to college, it’s how they treat others and make situations better by their involvement and their actions and their decisions.”
This spring’s Alpha Wolf 11 Champions of Character assembly was a little extra special. Not only did the event include a special guest speaker in University of Mississippi quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, but it was also the 11th year of the program that began in 2016. Chambliss also was inducted as an honorary Alpha Wolf 11.
The Alpha Wolf 11 Champions of Character program has its roots modeled after a similar program that began at Grandville High School. The Grandville program is named the Ryan Fischer Be an 11 program. It was named after former Grandville student and three-sport athlete Ryan Fisher who died suddenly of a heart condition in 2014.
The 11 stands for students going above and beyond being a 10. To encourage students to do the little things in character, encouraging them to go above and beyond the standard 10 level of performance to become an 11. Fischer exemplified those qualities as a student at Grandville and was the inspiration for the award. During Friday’s assembly at Wyoming a tribute video of Fischer was played. The video included the moving story that WOOD TV Sports Director Jack Doles produced about the life and legacy of Fischer that aired in 2014. Fischer’s parents also were on hand for the Alpha Wolf 11 assembly and were recognized.
Two teachers also were honored as Alpha Wolf 11 Champions of Character at the event; Morgann Sacks and Jacob Newhouse.
“It’s a big celebration and it’s great to see the community coming back together,” Hoekstra said, “because where it’s a Wyoming Public Schools initiative it goes far beyond the city of Wyoming because there’s been many partners and supporters of this program that have truly poured into our kids and our staff here.”
