For the 24-25 school year, student leaders at Pleasant Valley High School led a new initiative to promote inclusivity in regards to the pronunciation of student names.

A Positive Place Club works to create an inclusive and accepting environment for students. They discuss difficult topics and encourage students to share about the areas in the building that could use improvement. This year, the club decided to tackle a new issue: name pronunciation.

The initiative began last school year after an article written by the Spartan Shield gained support for addressing the prominent issue of mispronounced student names. The issue was brought to the attention of A Positive Place. The club came to a consensus that this matter needed to be addressed by the school.

Students hope the initiative will create an equitable and inclusive student community. “I hope this name pronunciation initiative will make students feel respected and cared about. I also hope this fosters students’ confidence to correct teachers if the student’s name is being mispronounced! It is vital that all students fill out the form because all names are beautiful and worthy of being pronounced correctly,” shared junior Siddhi Bharadwaj.

Before the current school year, A Positive Place leaders Siddhi Bharadwaj and Laura Chen began to push for a pronunciation initiative. Working with the club’s advisors and tech administration, the pair put together a proposal to share with the counseling department and administration. The day before school started, both departments approved the initiative.

Teacher and A Positive Place advisor Sara Russell believes the initiative will empower students to strive for change. “Anytime we can empower students to drive the change they want to see, it’s great for the students to see that and it’s important for the adults in the building to see what the students themselves want for us to be able to help enact those changes,” expressed Russell.

The counseling department then assigned a Google Form to all students in their graduating class’s Google Classroom. The form includes a section where students provide the phonetic pronunciation of their name along with the audio version. By incorporating both of these elements, staff are able to carefully learn the pronunciation of their students’ names.

As of now, the form has been filled out by nearly 650 students. The club is still pushing for every student to submit this form and hopes to reach all 1,600 students in the coming weeks.

Students will gain the confidence to correct staff on the correct pronunciation of their names while staff will be able to learn the accurate pronunciation for years to come. Counselors are excited about this initiative as it will establish proper pronunciation from the get-go.“This will take us back to when you come to the building as a freshman, we’ll get your name right immediately instead of on your last day,” said counselor Ellie Thomas. 

Because of the widespread success of the initiative, Bharadwaj and Chen were both recognized at the back-to-school assembly for their hard work and dedication to fostering an inclusive and respectful environment for students in the classroom.

While hundreds of students have filled out the form, A Positive Place wants to ensure that every student is accounted for. Students interested in filling out the form should check their grade’s Google Classroom for the information needed to establish the proper pronunciation of their name.

This story was originally published on Spartan Shield on October 1, 2024.