Keith Hawkins Gives Motivational Speech To CHS Students

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CHS had an assembly featuring motivational speaker Keith Hawkins this past Tuesday. The assembly focused on motivating students to improve the general school climate, and also giving students a place to assist each other in the issues that they are facing.

During the assembly, there were a multitude of different activities and opportunities for students to participate. At the start of the assembly, Hawkins played a short game of Simon Says. Although this game could have sound a bit silly at first, it helped students become more engaged throughout the assembly and made students feel more comfortable in the activities that followed.

One major topic Hawkins preached was standing up for yourself and the issues that you are facing. Most students participated in this activity as many of the issues Hawkins highlighted were the issues many students were facing. The things students stood for ranged from abuse, daily life struggles, and stressors, caused by a multitude of different factors.

Hawkins’ has always preached “Better Than Good” to the audience whom he is speaking to. “This phrase is not just for motivational purposes, it is for his fellow peers to use to signify that they are doing, literally, “better than good.”

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many students have been facing social anxiety, or even anxiety just by being present at school. “Kids feel that they are more stressed than they were before the pandemic, they have more work, they are less engaged in school, and their relationships with teachers and kids are strained,” said Denise Pope in a Stanford article. However, thanks to lowering COVID-19 restrictions thanks to new findings about the virus, students are able to be more actively engaged with one another in a day-to-day school environment. “I learned a lot more people at school have gone through the things we stood up for, such as abuse, daily life struggles, and stressors caused by a large school environment” said rising sophomore Drew Russell. He continued, “We stood up for them, and some of the issues we were all facing collectively.”

Hawkins did not grow up with a fabulous or an extravagant lifestyle throughout his childhood. Hawkins comes from a single parent family, where he was primarily raised by his mother, and did not have a fatherly figure around during his childhood. Hawkins faced a multitude of different challenges throughout his childhood, and according to Hawkins’ own website, “with a struggling single parent mom, an abusive stepfather, a poor education, and a violent environment, he was not expected to make it to adulthood.” Despite all of the challenges Hawkins faced during his childhood, he found his passion through leadership, which kick started his career as a motivational speaker. “Education taught Keith how to unlearn bad habits that were created through his childhood and learn how to create good habits to take into his adulthood,” outlined in a short story about Hawkins on his own website.

Hawkins has traveled across the United States to speak to schools, colleges, and businesses. Hawkins will be back again presenting again at the Coronado Unified School District within the coming year.

VOL. 10, NO. 10 - Dec. 7, 2022