Assembly Speaker Urges Having A Plan
Students form a human yurt during the assembly.
March 22, 2022
On March 21st, Chester High School held an assembly at 1pm for ComWell to connect with the students. Chester Grade School students from sixth to eight grade came over to listen to Brent Swolsky talk about his life struggles.
During the assembly, he kept the crowd very active by having students participate by taking off one shoe and holding it in the air, smiling at each other with either eye contact or not, and shaking hands with either a firm handshake or a “dead fish” handshake. He got lots of laughter out of the crowd during his presentation. He discussed how he came from a business family. His mom did a lot of volunteering and his dad handled a lot of business factors. He talked about words of wisdom he received form his father, smile and a handshake and having your own five year plan. When he went to college he was sure he wanted to go into business like the rest of his family had, but he struggled with mathematics. He wasn’t able to get past it and he started failing his courses. Brent was getting close to have to be sent home due to his grades. He finally decided to see his academic counselor for some advice. His counselor talked to him about his interests and that is when he discovered his calling. While during high school he was a camp counselor and during one of his times at camp he met a student with Cerebral Palsy. He was astounded at how smart the kid was, but was still wheelchair bond due to his issues. He talked about this event in his life with his counselor until there was nothing left to be said. That day is when he changed his career path; he was going to become a Special Education teacher.
Swolsky continued to talk on about how he was a teacher for eight years and his calling changed, he wanted to share his story with high school students everywhere. He wants his message to reach as many people as possible: life will be scary, and no one can predict all of the events that will happen and that is part of it. Life is going to throw you some curve balls, but you have to adjust to what life gives you. Having a five year plan at all times is a great thing, but it is your five your plan and it is allowed to change to fit your needs.
During the next day all students were given wrist bands that say “YOU MATTER” and a little card that has hotline numbers on it for students who may ever need it.
ComWell has offices in Chester, Sparta and Red Bud. The Chester office is at 2517 State Street; phone 826-4547.
