Students sign the Honor Banner during the 2026 Middle School Honor Assembly, signaling their commitment to HRA’s core values
For Abigail Whorley, Director of Middle School at Hampton Roads Academy, “the Honor System is about who we are becoming, both as individuals and as a community.”
“Middle School gives students countless opportunities every day to make choices, some small and some significant, about how they will show up, how they will treat other people, and what they will do when no one is watching,” she said. “The Honor System gives us a shared framework for those choices.”
On the afternoon of Monday, September 14, students in Grades 5 through 8 joined with faculty members in the Svein J. Lassen Auditorium to affirm their dedication to that framework at the 2026 Middle School Honor Assembly. The event followed a similar gathering for the Upper School the previous Thursday and featured remarks by senior Honor Council co-chairs Adair Loos ’27 and Aniyah Solomon ’27, who (along with Ellie Richardson ’27) are charged with upholding the school’s Honor Code. These parallel and collaborative exercises underscored HRA’s unified commitment to integrity, responsible conduct, and moral as well as academic excellence.
“Honor is the value that defines our community,” said history teacher and Middle School Dean of Students Kerry LiBrando. “In order to ensure this value remains the foundation of our school, is it essential that there is a shared language and commitment across the grade levels and divisions.” The goal of the Middle School Honor Assembly, she explained, was to frame expectations and invite students to signal their intentions for the year ahead, both to themselves and to their classmates, by signing the Honor Banner.
As LiBrando observed, “Starting the year with a public commitment to honor sets your compass for how to approach your classes as well as your peers, coaches, and teachers.”
“The Foundations of a Strong Character”
“The bedrock, the foundation of our lives here at Hampton Roads Academy”: Head of School Jay Lasley describes honor as the character trait that unites and defines the Navigator community
The Honor System, Head of School Jay Lasley told students during the Upper School Honor Council Assembly, is “the bedrock, the foundation of our lives here at Hampton Roads Academy.”
To be a Navigator is to adhere to the three pillars of the Honor System—HRA’s core values of honesty, respect, and responsibility—not only in one’s work as a student, but in all activities both on and off campus. For students, the most visible and tangible reminders of their commitment to the Honor Code are their signatures on the Honor Banner and on each assignment they complete throughout the year, but the code provides a lodestar that extends far beyond academics.
As Lasley noted, “Honor guides every choice we make on paper, in conversation, and yes, online.”
The framework provided by the HRA Honor Code is especially important for Navigators in Middle School, which LiBrando described as “an era when students are truly in the deep work of building their personal and social identities.” For current fifth graders and Middle Schoolers who are new to HRA, this year’s Honor Assembly marked the first time they had publicly dedicated themselves to the Honor System. The exercises allowed them to launch this chapter of their Navigator journey with a clear ethical sense of direction that will serve them well past their Middle School years.
According to Honor Council faculty sponsor and Upper School English teacher Jeremy Clover, the Honor System “helps set the foundations of a strong character that will stay with the students throughout their lives, regardless of whether they are Anchors or only stay with us for a short time.”
A Public Commitment to Honor
Director of Middle School Abigail Whorley shares a personal story with fifth through eighth graders to illustrate what it means to choose the “hard right” over the “easy wrong”
The Middle School Honor Assembly opened with remarks by Whorley to provide an overview of the Honor Code and its role in the HRA community. Drawing on her personal experience of making the hard choice to admit to an act of academic dishonesty and face the consequences during her own middle school years, the director stressed each student’s role in fostering and upholding “a culture of integrity, mutual respect, and personal responsibility.”
“Creating that culture,” Whorley said, “isn’t something that simply happens. Instead, it is a conscious, consistent decision to continually do the next best thing over and over again. It’s the decision to see our mistakes as opportunities to show up differently, to make a different choice, and to truly grow.”
Next to take the podium was Clover, who introduced himself to the Middle Schoolers in his role overseeing the Honor Council before inviting student co-chairs Solomon and Loos to address the students. Taking turns, the two seniors discussed how their younger peers can embody HRA’s core values of honesty, respect, and responsibility every day.
“As Middle School students, you are given more privileges than Lower School students,” Solomon said. “But a privilege is something you earn” by embracing “a responsibility to act with maturity and integrity.” She urged the Middle Schoolers to show respect for every person and and every opportunity they encounter on campus, as by using their school-provided iPads only for approved purposes and maintaining open communication with their teachers, who “spend hours creating a curriculum that best prepares you for your future.”
Senior Aniyah Solomon ’27 addresses the student body, joined by fellow Honor Council co-chairs Ellie Richardson ’27 (left) and Adair Loos ’27 (right)
As an HRA Anchor, Solomon explained that she could feel the difference that a culture of honor made from the moment she became a Navigator at age four. She encouraged her audience to continue this tradition through the choices they make. When challenges arise, as they inevitably will, she explained, students need not sacrifice their honor, but rather turn to the plethora of resources and support available to help every Navigator succeed.
Echoing her fellow Honor Council co-chair, Loos stressed the many ways in which the Honor Code creates a uniquely positive student experience at HRA. She emphasized the timeless relevance of the Honor Pledge that Navigators write and sign after each assessment, keeping students accountable for their learning even in the age of generative artificial intelligence. The senior also pointed to honesty and respect among the student body as they reason that HRA can maintain lockers without locks and allow students to leave personal belongings unattended without fear of theft.
As role models for younger Middle Schoolers, eighth graders are the first to sign the Honor Banner for their division
“Today, you’re going to make a promise to yourself and your teachers that you will follow the Honor Code,” Loos told the younger students. “The Honor Council and your teachers trust you, and we hope that you choose to make the right decisions this year.”
To close the assembly, the eighth graders made their dedication to honesty, respect, and responsibility official by signing the Honor Banner as leaders and role models for the rest of the Middle School student body. Fifth, sixth, and seventh graders affixed their signatures to the banner during their TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) advisory periods the following day, completing a lasting monument to honor that will hang outside the Middle School office for the rest of the year.
“Choosing the Hard Right over the Easy Wrong”
The Middle School Honor Assembly marked not a completed achievement, but rather the beginning of a yearslong process of growth for HRA’s students.
“In Middle School, honor doesn’t mean never making a mistake,” LiBrando said. “It means accepting accountability, leaning into the learning, and making adjustments to do better.”
This stage of the Navigator experience, according to Whorley, provides a safe environment in which students can “practice doing the right thing before the stakes are much higher.”
Developing confidence and agency: Whorley congratulates Middle Schoolers as they reaffirm their dedication to personal growth through adherence to the Honor System
“We want students to develop the confidence and agency to make good choices because they understand why those choices matter, rather than out of fear of a consequence,” the Middle School director said.
During HRA’s Year of Resilience, this process of productive struggle informed by HRA’s Honor Code takes on new significance.
“Sometimes resilience means choosing the hard right over the easy wrong, especially when telling the truth, admitting a mistake, or taking responsibility feels uncomfortable,” Whorley explained. “And when students do get it wrong, resilience is having the courage to own that choice, learn from it, repair what needs to be repaired, and move forward. We talk a lot in Middle School about failing fast and failing forward. A mistake doesn’t have to define a student, but what they do next matters.”
“That’s what we want our Middle Schoolers practicing now,” she added: “not perfection, but the courage and character to make good choices, take responsibility for themselves, and grow from the moments when they fall short. The Honor System gives them a framework for doing that with increasing independence as they move through HRA and beyond.”
