In The News: 'Newberg Nation' rallies NHS students

Newberg High School lead principal Mark Risen first introduced “Newberg Nation” as a unifying concept during his presentations to staff, students and parents while interviewing for the job last spring. Three weeks into the school year it’s clear the rallying call has taken hold.
That was obvious to anyone who attended either the Tigers’ home volleyball contest Sept. 18 or the football team’s victory over Tualatin Friday night, as a sea of students were boisterous in their support at the former and the grandstands have never been brighter after the students dressed up in neon colors for the latter.
“Everybody is getting behind the idea of the new administration,” senior Craig Beecher said. “We’re all getting together, one school, Newberg Nation, and not so much the small schools. We haven’t done anything just with our small schools. I think coming together as one, as Newberg Nation, I think a lot of kids like that idea.”
To Risen, Newberg Nation is simply the overarching theme or construct for the larger effort to not only unify, but improve the school.
The key is that instead of bringing in a lot of preconceived ideas about how that will be done, the administration is leaving it up to the students to take the lead in deciding how to bring everyone together.
For example, the neon idea, which included dressing up for school on Friday and a costume contest (won by Logan Turner), came from a student.
“I feel like they really care about what the students want,” senior Heather Petrie said. “I feel like that’s a really good thing to do. Instead of coming in and taking over, they really listen to what the students want.”
Functionally, a lot of the work so far has been done through the Associated Student Body (ASB) leadership, which works with Risen and new activities director Mark Brown to brainstorm and implement ideas.
“It’s very much student driven and the credit is to them because they’re buying in,” Brown said. “An adult can stand up here and doing anything they want, but it doesn’t mean anything if the kids don’t buy in.”
The effort isn’t just paying dividends at sporting events, however, but has also changed the overall atmosphere in the school on a daily basis by emphasizing positive interaction.
Part of this success of the effort is that ideas are coming in from all corners, like head football coach T.J. Tomlin’s new initiative to have the football team lead the crowd in singing the alma mater following football games.
As a teacher, Tomlin said he has long wanted to see a school-wide approach to things and noted the first assembly of the year was a big success.
“Mr. Hawthorne did an awesome job getting our kids ready to sing the alma mater,” Tomlin said. “A lot of people have just come together and made it work.”
Risen also noted that after the assembly, he counted 411 students who greeted him in the hallway.
“There’s not a whole bunch of visible changes,” Beecher said. “I just think it’s more like the feel. From day one since he came here, he’s said that if you have an idea, if you want to do something, come talk to me and we’ll make it happen. He follows up on that.”
That has meant taking a similarly inclusive approach with faculty and staff, which Risen led through covenant training, at which it chose integrity, respect, work ethic and humor as its core values.
“I think what principal Risen has facilitated has definitely translated to the staff being more connected and a much more positive energy,” Brown said. “There’s more general understanding of what the vision is, what the mission is. The campus every single day has a better feeling and a change from what it was before.”
In terms of adding value to the experience at NHS, Risen also sees the Newberg Nation concept as a jumping off point for implementing a Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS) system at the school.
At some point, Risen expects students will create covenants with teachers, working collaboratively to establish things various ex-pectations, like classroom rules.
“Are the students going to hold each other accountable because they created those rules?” Risen said. “That’s really PBIS: collaborate on it, agree on it and hold each other to it, but do it in a positive construct.”
Brown is also running a Newberg Nation account on Twitter and has been surprised at how vigorously students have used the social media tool to spread the word about events and boost school spirit.
Risen, of course, has plenty of ideas for programs that he would like to introduce over time, like brining covenant training to athletic teams and other activities, like drama and band, but knows from prior experience to be patient with the process.
“There are some fun things in store and I’m excited for where we’re going,” Brown said. “This Newberg Nation is pretty fun.”

Written by Seth Gordon