{"id":5047,"date":"2018-10-16T15:49:31","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T19:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nhvweb.net\/vhs\/home\/?p=5047"},"modified":"2019-01-07T12:19:25","modified_gmt":"2019-01-07T16:19:25","slug":"voorhees-is-a-national-unified-champion-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nhvweb.net\/vhs\/home\/voorhees-is-a-national-unified-champion-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Voorhees High School is a Special Olympics National Unified Champion School"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n\r\nIn just two years of launching its Unified\u00a0program to continue its mission to create an inclusive school environment for\u00a0all students, Voorhees High School has been declared an official Special\r\nOlympics National Unified Champion School. Surrounded by students, staff members, Unified athletes and parents,\u00a0representatives from Special Olympics New Jersey formally recognized Voorhees\u00a0as a Unified Champion School on October 16, 2018 with a banner dedication\u00a0ceremony.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThis national recognition, of which only 221\u00a0schools nationwide have received to date, means that Voorhees High School\u2019s\u00a0Unified program has met the ten standards of excellence set forth by Special\u00a0Olympics International.\u00a0 The ten\u00a0standards of excellence focus on four key areas: Unified Sports, Inclusive\u00a0Youth Leadership, Whole School Engagement and sustainability for the program (click here<\/a> to view the ten\u00a0standards).\u00a0 According to a letter from\u00a0Special Olympics International Chairman, Dr. Timothy Schriver, \u201cThe Voorhees\u00a0High School staff and students have demonstrated their commitment to inclusion.\u00a0Your school community has shown impressive determination and is helping us move\u00a0towards our collective goal of creating a truly \u2018Unified Generation\u2019 of young\u00a0people who embrace differences and lead social change.\u201d\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Unified initiative at Voorhees High School\u00a0began during the 2016-2017 school year with a grant from the Special Olympics\u00a0of New Jersey to launch Unified Sports.\u00a0Students with and without disabilities play together on one team and\u00a0against other high schools with Unified Sports teams.\u00a0 Voorhees started with a Unified basketball\u00a0team, and has since added track & field and soccer teams. In fact, Unified\u00a0athletic events are some of the most highly attended events by students.\u00a0 In addition to Unified Sports, Voorhees\u00a0started a Unified Club through which students with and without disabilities\u00a0held various awareness campaigns during the year, such as Light It Up Blue for\u00a0Autism, Spread the Word to End the Word, World Down Syndrome Day and Epilepsy\u00a0Awareness Day. Within the first few months of its Unified initiative, Voorhees\u00a0saw an immediate change in the overall school culture. A perfect example of\u00a0this change is when the graduating Class of 2017 chose to give the traditional\u00a0monetary \u201csenior gift\u201d to the Unified initiative with one simple request:\u00a0continue the Unified movement at Voorhees High School to ensure that all\u00a0students are included in the school community.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u201cOne of the things that I am most proud of at\u00a0Voorhees is the acceptance that students have for one another.\u00a0 The Unified Program has taken this to a level\u00a0beyond our imagination.\u00a0 I am in awe of\r\nthe genuine friendships that have been developed.\u00a0 An added benefit that we truly did not expect\u00a0is that a significant number of our students are going to college and majoring\u00a0in a field to support individuals with special needs.\u00a0 Just the thought of it overwhelms me with\u00a0pride,\u201d said Ron Peterson, Principal of Voorhees High School.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIn the initiative\u2019s second year, students\u00a0embraced the \u201cChoose to Include\u201d motto and helped coin the hashtag\u00a0#actuallyIcan that ran with most of the Unified Club\u2019s fundraisers.\u00a0 Students involved in the Unified program took\u00a0over running the school store and coordinated a community bowling night,\u00a0Unified field day, a team for Relay for Life, and end of year banquet for\u00a0students, parents and community members. Also in the second year, Voorhees\u00a0added a new course to its curriculum called Unified Leadership, which had 25\u00a0students enroll. For 2018-2019, over 90 students registered for this new\u00a0course.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nPlans to expand the Unified program continue\u00a0in the 2018-2019 school year. Unified youth leaders will be reaching out to the\u00a0elementary and middle schools in the regional district to spread the \u201cChoose to\u00a0Include\u201d message.\u00a0 A coffee shop recently\u00a0opened in the newly renovated media center, staffed by Unified students.\u00a0 The addition of a Unified Physical Education\u00a0course is also in motion. Also at the beginning of this school year, the\u00a0Unified program donated a new Vikings mascot costume to the school as a\u00a0reminder that regardless of our differences, we are all Voorhees Vikings.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Unified faculty coordinators, Kaitlyn Collins, Carolyn Baumann, Melissa Haines, Sarah Cummins, Jennifer Komoroski, as well as Assistant Principal, Kelly Anne Kieffer, know that for all the larger initiatives and programs that have happened, it is the small things that make the school truly unified.\u00a0 \u201cWhen parents and grandparents thank us after a sporting event, when Unified leaders come back from college to take a student to a movie, when typical students invite students with disabilities to their lunch table on their own accord, and when students with disabilities demonstrate social independence at large high school events- this is when you know you are truly a Unified school.\u00a0 The Voorhees Unified Generation of students is unmatched and should be congratulated for their leadership,\u201d said Kieffer.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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In just two years of launching its Unified\u00a0program to continue its mission to create an inclusive school environment for\u00a0all students, Voorhees High School has been declared an official Special Olympics National Unified Champion School. Surrounded by students, staff members, Unified athletes and parents,\u00a0representatives from Special Olympics New Jersey formally recognized Voorhees\u00a0as a Unified Champion School […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":5046,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5047","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bulletin-board","8":"category-very-important","9":"entry","10":"override"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.nhvweb.net\/vhs\/home\/files\/2018\/10\/VHS-Unified-Champion-School-recognition-photo.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-19 16:13:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhvweb.net\/vhs\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhvweb.net\/vhs\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhvweb.net\/vhs\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhvweb.net\/vhs\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhvweb.net\/vhs\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5047"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhvweb.net\/vhs\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5165,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhvweb.net\/vhs\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5047\/revisions\/5165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhvweb.net\/vhs\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhvweb.net\/vhs\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhvweb.net\/vhs\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhvweb.net\/vhs\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}