Students learn to be confident
By Ashley Rhodebeck
Daily News staff writer













Staff photo by Ashley Rhodebeck
Miss Beloit Sara Siekierski speaks to seventh-graders at Aldrich Middle School Wednesday morning during the building’s annual rededication of the Ribbon of Promise. Siekierski focused on the importance of self-confidence and making good decisions.


Beloit educators know their advice to teens about the value of education and exerting good behavior begins to sound like a broken record, so some have begun using older teens and young adults to help communicate the message.

Students at Aldrich Middle School received such peer-to-peer advice Wednesday morning during the building's annual Ribbon of Promise ceremony - a national campaign to prevent school violence.

“Everyone without exception regrets becoming involved in a gang,” said Doug Reynolds, the district's coordinator of security and safety.

Although Reynolds spoke, the event's featured guests were Beloit Memorial High School seniors Brittany Hereford and Leah Prins, and Miss Beloit Sara Siekierski, who emphasized self-confidence.

“Being confident is what will carry you,” Siekierski told the room full of seventh graders. “Start now. Be confident now.”

Siekierski, a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, explained how self-confidence would have helped her during middle and high school. At Turner Middle School, she was often picked on, teased and called names, she said, commenting it was difficult to go to school like that.

“Don't let anyone test your self worth,” Siekierski advised, noting that's when poor decisions are often made. Instead, she told the students to remember they deserve a good education, a good family and a good life. “Never, ever let someone say you don't deserve it.”

Because the teenage years are often about fitting in, Siekierski cautioned the students that while it may seem important now, many of them will have different friends in a few years.

So, she said, start making good decisions now, including treating others with respect and speaking out when someone is or might be planning a violent act.

“I'm not Miss Beloit just because I won a pageant,” Siekierski explained, “but because I made good decisions.”