“Stitched Together”: Lower School Honors Community and Core Values at First Leadership Assembly of the Academic Year

On the afternoon of Friday, September 26, Hampton Roads Academy’s Lower School proudly continued a ten-year-old tradition with the first Leadership Assembly of the 2025-2026 academic year.

Led each month by members of the Lower School Student Council Association (SCA) and including many Navigator families as well as the student body and faculty, the assembly “pulls us together as a community,” according to Director of Lower School Susanne Swain ’78. “It gives the visitors—the parents and grandparents—a peek into our school’s values and how we reinforce those values as we go through the year.”

This month’s Lower School Leadership Assembly, entitled “Stitched Together: The Year of Connections,” provided an opportunity for HRA administrators and SCA officers to share their perspectives on the theme that will inform the life of the entire school throughout the year. The program reinforced for our youngest learners the role they have to play as leaders of a community whose strength lies in our connections to one another.

“Friendships, Kind Hearts, and a Caring Community”

The day of the assembly, this crucial lesson was front-and-center from the very start. Students arrived in the Lower School Commons in the morning to see their class quilts, featuring squares to which they had all signed their names, prominently presented and tied together, thanks to the efforts of Lower School substitute teacher Lisa Hartman, Peninsula Piecemakers, and Colonial Piecemakers. This display, Swain explained, demonstrated to students that “as a community, we are linked together.”

Students also received custom-made Year of Connections pins to display on their backpacks as a visual reminder of the meaning of the yearlong theme.

The assembly itself began that afternoon in the Svein J. Lassen Auditorium with the presentation of the colors, after which second grader and Lower School SCA Secretary/Treasurer Lydia McCallie ’36 led the Pledge of Allegiance. Following Swain’s welcome remarks, students who had been granted the honor of serving as class flag bearers and leading their classmates into the auditorium brought their class flags onto the stage as Head of School Jay Lasley called roll.

Next to take the dais was Lower School SCA President Sophia Barbosa ’34, who delivered a thoughtful speech on the theme of connections.

“When we connect, we build friendships, kind hearts, and a caring community,” Barbosa told her peers, stressing the importance of “small daily gestures, such as smiling at someone, eye contact, and showing interest in getting to know another student.”

“These daily connections with students, teachers, and everyone we come into contact with are the fabric that makes HRA a special place,” she said.

After Barbosa completed her remarks, Lower School SCA Vice President Shreyan Paul ’35 spoke on the importance of HRA’s core values—honesty, respect, and responsibility.

“These core values aren’t only to be used at school, but also can be used anywhere,” the third grader said. With this trio of principles as a lodestar, he explained to his fellow Lower Schoolers, “[we can] improve ourselves and make a better world around us.”

Like the Honor Council Assemblies for our Middle and Upper School, this presentation served to help Lower School students understand what our community stands for and how they can be ethical and responsible learners at HRA.

Celebrating Each Member of the Navigator Community

As a demonstration of our students’ and parents’ investment in the HRA community and commitment to outstanding character, the program included a gracious acknowledgment of families who had lent a helping hand in tending the Lower School Garden over the summer. These generous volunteers included the Pruitt family, the Prohaska-Moon family, the White family, the LiBrando family, the Dunn/Lomonaco family, and Lower School grandparent Dabney Morgan. HRA is deeply appreciative of all their contributions. 

The Lower School community also proudly welcomed its newly elected second-, third-, and fourth-grade SCA representatives:

Toward the end of the assembly, the Lower School chorus, led by music teacher Erika Caulford and accompanied on piano by HRA senior and former Lower Schooler Zack Patten ’26, came to the front of the room to sing the Academy’s Alma Mater. The program then concluded with the monthly recognition of student birthdays. This “little one-on-one touch,” Swain said, “lets each child know we remember their special day.”

Critical Leadership Skills: Learning by Doing

The monthly Lower School Leadership Assemblies are not simply community events. They also provide young students with an invaluable introduction to such important skills as speechwriting, speaking or performing in front of an audience, and assuming a position of responsibility within a community. Believing that students acquire these learned skills through practice, the Lower School faculty make an effort to extend every student an opportunity to appear on stage in one capacity or another over the course of the year, whether as a flag bearer, a speaker, a choir singer, or a participant in a group performance.

As Junior Kindergarten teacher and Lower School SCA faculty advisor Jordan Gray explained, “It is important for even the youngest students to take on leadership roles because it allows them an opportunity to develop pride and confidence within themselves. Students at every grade level look forward to getting the chance to be a flag bearer and represent their class in front of the whole Lower School community.”

Fourth-grade teacher Savannah Whitten, who shares advising duties with Gray, underscored the vital role that Lower School Leadership Assemblies play in our students’ education.

“I believe these early leadership experiences help students understand the value of teamwork, initiative, and accountability, skills that are essential for success in Middle School and beyond,” she said. “They also empower students to see themselves as capable leaders, laying a strong foundation for future growth.”