Elk Grove High School’s official acronym is LEGACY. While students are encouraged to discover their own LEGACY during their four years at Elk Grove, each pillar has its own meaning and its own goal.

Though leadership, growth, advocacy and collaboration are common themes for many schools, empathy is what is most misunderstood and what is needed for students to strive and be successful academically. As Elk Grove students, we often struggle to feel seen, understood, and accepted for who we are as people while building walls around us. Empathy is the need for understanding and to seek the understanding of others while showing compassion, kindness, and respect which Elk Grove High School strives to achieve.

Principal Dr. Paul Kelly promotes empathy at Elk Grove by helping students to be more self aware and promotes students to think about others before themselves.

“The most obvious way [to promote empathy] is to always be thinking about what other people are going through. When you walk into your day you don’t only think about yourself and what you’re feeling. You look at the people around you and remind yourself that everybody that your looking at is going through something, it could be good, bad or a little bit of both but just always being aware that the people around you they are as important as you are and what they are feeling is really important.”

Kelly added that social media can be a tricky obstacle for teenagers feeling empathy for others.

“You can be aware when something accidentally starts to become bullying, hazing or a pile up of numerous people making somebody else not feel good,” Kelly said. “You can become aware of that, see it and notice it and then not continue down that path so we often see people who post something, put something on their story and they didn’t include somebody else.”

Dr. Kelly believes that empathy helps students become successful and excel academically.

“Nobody can do great things if they don’t feel right, so nobody can be their very best if they’re emotionally upset, angry or hurt,” Kelly said. “When people have a connection with somebody else they feel more empowered, alive, and positive. When you feel empowered, alive and positive you are able to achieve better things, so when you know that people are looking out for you and you know that they have your back and are willing to help you, you can be focused and concentrated on those things that are challenging.”

School social worker Chris Melecio believes that empathy is complex and unique to every student and strives to be heard, understood and seen. Social workers have several strategies to ensure that students feel seen and heard. 

“I’m making sure that I’m validating how you feel and how we can work through this,” he said. “I think creating a non-judgmental environment from the start and making sure that I’m paying full attention to the student and making sure that we are listening and using our body language, like using the head nods, reassurance and confirmation, and comments and small little notes of feedback as well as rephrasing things.”

Melecio said he’s making sure that students’ cultural backgrounds are considered when making decisions about how to best support them and build connections

“Every student is different, and they all have different cultural backgrounds, different backgrounds in general, different challenges that they overcome,” he said. “So I try to utilize and take consideration of all those different things to make sure that I’m personalizing my session with a student individually just for them.”

Associate principal of student activities Jackie Randall also sees how students demonstrate empathy on a daily basis. She shouted out senior Janae Esther for exemplifying empathy. 

“Whenever Janae sees me, she has a big smile on her face and she is always happy to interact with me,” Randall said. “She asks me about my day and how I’m feeling. She always makes me feel seen and she just makes me feel better after I talk to her. I am also really inspired by her fashion.” 

Special education teacher Courtney Steltzriede said that she shows empathy to students with disabilities by encouraging and showing acceptance.

“We can show empathy to students with disabilities by accepting their individuality, encouraging self-expression, and making sure they feel included in conversations and classroom activities,” Steltzriede said. “Every student is unique, and taking the time to get to know them, just like we would with a friend, helps build trust and understanding. Empathy starts with listening, learning, and creating a safe space where all students feel valued and supported.”

Special education teacher Sara Berebitsky echoes what others have said about being empathetic as a teacher who works with students who have disabilities. 

“They’re students, young adults, athletes, siblings, employees, friends,” Berebitsky said. “Most importantly, they are people that I have the privilege to get to know and work with each day at EGHS.  Keeping the pillar of empathy at the forefront of what I do, what I say, and how I interact with students is important to not only building relationships with students but providing them what they may need, understanding that this can, and does, change each day.”