By Kyle Coppola
Carver Middle School Launches “You’re Not Alone Campaign”
Carver Middle School has launched a brand new program called the You’re Not Alone program. This new program is designed to help children who suffer from hopelessness. 1 in 4 teens suffer from hopelessness, and this program has been designed to combat those issues plaguing our youth.
The program’s Student Ambassador Pledge states, “I hereby pledge to continue practicing self-care. I also pledge to educate others about the importance of self-care. I promise to be MINDFUL of my surroundings and mindful about those around me, always practicing and teaching mental wellness.”
The program goes on to state, “I pledge to continue enhancing my knowledge about mental health and help break the negative stigma associated with mental health problems. I will continue building my network of trusted adults and utilize my role as a Student Ambassador to properly connect with my peers and help guide them to those trusted adults whenever necessary. With this oath, I pledge to encourage and tell my peers that ‘You’re Not Alone’.”
This is a terrific program that has been put into place by Carver Middle School. As we know, Mental Health is so important to our youth. Helping young children to understand what to look for and seek help is one of the most important things. It’s so important to catch these things before it may be too late.
The school has been working very hard at helping students with mental health. Principal Kelley-Truitt and her faculty have truly done an amazing job in the past few years with the programs that are offered at Carver Middle School.
(Principal Kelley-Truitt has been working very hard with students at Carver Middle over the years. Those results are paying off in big ways at the High School level.)
Principal Kelley-Truitt has two decades in education and was the school’s assistant principal for several years before becoming the principal during the 2017-2018 school year. Her commitment to the Leesburg community and working in educational settings has really pushed the school to do more for the community, and that’s been highly evident.
We can see those changes taking shape. It’s trickled up to the High School level. Since taking over as Principal at Carver, Leesburg High has experienced a boom in its graduation rate. They have gone from a 67% graduation rate to an 87% graduation rate in just 8 years. While Principal Michael Randolph of Leesburg High has been a huge reason for the success, Principal Kelley-Truitt and her faculty have also been a big reason for the jump in high school graduation numbers due to the hard work being put into the students at the middle-school level. Students are being prepared like never before as they make the jump to Leesburg High School.
Programs like these are a huge part of our educational system. We love to see the commitment in our community to protecting our youth and making sure they have someone to go to in a time of need. We have reached out to Carver Middle School for comment.
I just want to personally say, kudos to the entire Carver Middle School staff on launching the You’re Not Alone Project. As a person who has seen first hand how important mental health and special education programs are, this is a moment to celebrate. We wish them the best of success with it.
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
