Forest Hills, Greater Johnstown students working together to improve school cultures

SIDMAN, Pa. – Greater Johnstown and Forest Hills high school students came together Tuesday to chat, eat pizza, play games and further collaborate on how they can improve the culture in both school districts.

“I think it’s a really great experience to meet other students ... and bounce ideas off of them as well,” Greater Johnstown senior Gretchen Miller said.

Miller and her Greater Johnstown peers are members of the school’s anti-bullying and suicide awareness group, Aevidum. They met with members of Never Alone, their sister organization at Forest Hills.

Tuesday’s gathering at Forest Hills High School in Sidman continued the work the two clubs started at the beginning of the school year, when they walked in unity onto the field before the Forest Hills-Greater Johnstown football game on Aug. 23.

Never Alone co-adviser Katlyn Kmetz said the goal was to build bridges between the two schools. She was happy to see how quickly the roughly 40 students started making new connections with each other.

“They’re all here because they want to be,” she said.

Missy Spaugy, a Greater Johnstown School District board member and Aevidum co-adviser, added that the “resounding message” of the partnership is “just being there for each other.”

“We’re very different school districts, obviously,” she said, “but we as human beings are going through (the same) stuff.”

Jadyn Oswalt, another Greater Johnstown senior, described the collaboration as important work and said she hoped the two groups could share ideas.

Arthur Livingston, a Forest Hills senior, said the continued partnership was a good idea. He said if the students want to really change school culture – stopping instances of bullying, isolation and exclusion – then that has to be done through scholastic collaboration.

Livingston said he hopes Tuesday’s event could lead to bridges being built for the schools to work together more often, and possibly to invite other neighboring districts to get involved.

“I think improving school culture has been a goal for Forest Hills and Johnstown,” Never Alone co-adviser Hannah Ribblett said.

Forest Hills sophomore Zachariah Hedricks said his main goal of attending the event was to learn from the Aevidum students. He joined Never Alone, he said, because he feels a responsibility to help his peers, and he expects the collaboration between the two schools to have a positive impact on both.

“A big part of what we need to do as a school is help students who feel alone,” Hedricks said.

The lunch gathering continued at Tuesday’s Forest Hills-Greater Johnstown volleyball game. Forest Hills students are expected to go to Johnstown for other events in October.

“It’s great for our kids to break the ice together and begin working together and bridge the gap so our communities can work together,” Aevidum co-adviser Gena Myers said.