South Brunswick High School Shows Character

Staff and students at South Brunswick High School have worked for many years to represent the five core values set forth by the district.  The staff at SBHS has long preached the importance of honesty, kindness, responsibility, service and respect.  Now the school is being recognized for their combined efforts.

South Brunswick High School has been named a 2011 New Jersey School of Character by the New Jersey Alliance for Social, Emotional and Character Development.   

"We're thrilled about this award," said Character Education Committee Chair Gina Welsh.  "We spend a lot of time and energy developing character initiatives for the students and we put a lot thought into it.  It feels awesome and we're really proud that we were selected."

SBHS was the only high school in New Jersey to be selected out of the 10 schools that were recognized statewide, and was one of only four high schools across the entire country to receive the designation.  As a result of the state-level honor, SBHS is now placed in competition to be named a National School of Character.  The Character Education Partnership in Washington, D.C. will be reviewing the application this spring to determine whether the school will earn the prestigious honor.  

"We're proud that we got as far as we did," Welsh said.  "Even if we don't go further, we have a lot to be proud of."

The award is based on 11 principals of character as set out by the Character Education Partnership, Welsh said.  

"One of the elements where we excelled was creating a caring community," she said.  "We did very well because we've been so concerned over the years with the tremendous growth in the student population.  The high school keeps getting bigger and bigger.  We're always focused on making a large school seem smaller and we've done a good job at creating a caring community and helping the students along as they grow."

Welsh said the character development initiatives at SBHS are too extensive to single out just one that had had the greatest impact.  She said all of the different programs work in conjunction with the five core values to provide students with the resources and guidance they need to succeed.

"Character development is not an add on, it's the way of doing business here," Welsh said. "It's a total school-wide effort that includes academics, athletics, activities and the arts.  I think it has a tremendous effect on students.  They know what we consider to be important here.   I guess if I was going to pick anything that I'm most proud of it would be the values that we selected as a school and all of the groups that work together to focus on those values."