BOLT: Building Our Legacy Together
In the fall of 2015, Meredith Wales, an English teacher, was presented with a unique opportunity: Create and teach a leadership class without any provided curriculum and help improve the culture at Skyview High School in Vancouver. “Skyview was the biggest it’d ever been that year, and when students were polled, they indicated that they didn’t feel united,” says Wales. While the school’s motto was Skyview Stands as One, many students often felt this was only accurate during times of difficulty or tragedy. Wales set out to create a class that fostered connection for students and rippled out to the entire school community. “I like big ideas,” she says.
While designing the class, she knew she wanted to teach her students professional skills like marketing, project managing and collaboration. Through group projects, she hoped to coach them on knowing when to lead and when to take a backseat, with the ultimate goal of creating unity. Inspired by TED and TEDx conferences, a format where people gather and share speeches about noteworthy ideas, Wales sought to recreate a similar event at Skyview. Wales said her initial idea was, “We should have a TEDx-inspired event where people could share authentically who they are and what they’ve learned.”
Building Our Legacy Together
From this seed of thought came BOLT, which stands for Building Our Legacy Together. “The name was an epiphany I had when I was drying my hair before school,” says Wales, recalling that she wanted the namesake to relate to the Skyview mascot, a storm, and also loving that a bolt represents spark and energy. When BOLT started nine years ago, the event focused on targeting staff and students who had a unique experience or perspective to share. In the years since, BOLT has morphed into an eclectic hybrid of speeches and unique talents presented by students and staff. Think of it like TED Talk meets Talent Show.
“BOLT has really evolved,” says Wales. “It started off with people being unsure of its purpose and now people view it as a consistent unifier that they look forward to every year.” And while the idea of BOLT originated with Wales, she credits students for putting in the legwork to make it happen. Students begin with initial preparations for the annual event in October, dedicating about two days per week until March, when it becomes all-hands-on-deck and they work on BOLT nearly every day.
Wales invited me into her classroom three weeks before the big event to witness students in action preparing for the big production. Every year, the theme for the event changes based on the class vision. “The schoolwide theme for [this] year is ‘Our School, Our Story.’ And [student] leadership wanted to put their own spin on that,” says Wales. Leadership students decided on “Turn the Page” to represent all students and to highlight the past, present and future chapters in their lives. Wales explains how students were reflecting on the past as a time when they had a lot more hope and optimism, and many wanted to return to that state of mind while also honoring their present. One student from the leadership class explains, “We kind of all came up with the theme together and we knew we wanted to use headshots to represent the present and baby pictures to represent the past.”
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
This year’s class divvied up into teams, with each group responsible for managing one specific aspect of the BOLT production. One group is dedicated to recruitment; they work to coordinate auditions, act as direct liaisons to the performers, organize the lineup and timing of the show and distribute information to all other groups. When asked about how they recruit students to audition, the group says they used all resources at their disposal: morning announcements, word of mouth, posters, fliers, social media and friend nominations. One student shared that it was the biggest turnout for auditions they’ve ever had. When selecting acts for the final lineup, they try to prioritize those who have never performed before and acts that fit well within the theme, while also showcasing a diverse range of people and talents.
The second group handled the marketing promotions for BOLT. They were responsible for creating a vision, securing sponsorships, designing posters, T-shirts and other swag to draw attention to the event. The group created a marketing campaign to reveal the performance lineup by using modified book covers with quotes, headshots, photos and insights of the performance. “They even came up with a drink and a promotional sticker sold in the student store,” adds Wales.
The final group concentrated on digital marketing and lead the way in designing and launching the BOLT website as well as creating social media campaigns and content across all accounts. These students worked on promotional commercials and coordinated filming of the big event. And while all groups are working tirelessly on BOLT, leadership students say they are still pulled in numerous directions on a regular basis. “There’s a lot of competing interests,” says one student. “We’re responsible for a public speaking unit, putting on cultural assembly and we got recruited to help put on a schoolwide Rock Paper Scissors competition.”
A Variety of Perspectives
With three weeks to go until their mid-April performance, groups were still actively prepping for a lineup with 28 different acts and a total of 57 performers. “We have lots of diverse acts this year that we’ve never seen before,” says Wales. In a school of about 1,800 students and an auditorium that only seats 1,100 students, Wales and her class set up a signup sheet for each period so classes could come and view a selection of the performances throughout the school day. Because of the changing performances, no one saw the same show twice. But to make sure everyone had an opportunity, the main BOLT event was an evening affair, open to students and the community free of cost.
Leadership student, Julianna B., not only helped produce BOLT, she was also a performer this year. “I will be performing a traditional Laotian dance with a friend in honor of Thai, Laos and Cambodian New Year’s,” Julianna said before the big day. “I was a dancer for 13 years of my life and I haven’t danced since before COVID; it’s my first time dancing since then and it’s going to be in front of the school which is very nerve-wracking, but I want to share it with everyone.” And while Julianna was heavily focused on the leadership side of things, she was excited about performing as well. “I just really enjoy dancing and it’s part of my identity,” she said. “I know there are other kids here from the same culture and I wanted to reach out to Skyview’s Southeast Asian community, so they feel seen as well.”
Caydance S., a sophomore, wanted to take on new challenges when performing his music. “I saw BOLT last year and thought it would be really cool to do it this year,” he said of his performance with his band, Dream Manifestation. “I’ve always done band and loved performing, but I got bored of performing the same stuff and I wanted to do something that you don’t see all the time.”
Skyview leadership student, Jaden L., says that he’s proud to be a part of BOLT because “it impacts a lot of people who are different from one another—it’s giving a name to people who aren’t really out there.” That, of course, doesn’t mean that the event doesn’t come without its challenges. “Sometimes you’re up against a deadline and people won’t get you the info you need or show up when they’re supposed to,” says Jaden.
By the ninth year of overseeing BOLT, Wales is used to the occasional challenges, but no longer finds the event stressful. “BOLT day is my favorite day of the year,” she says. “There aren’t really any surprises anymore.” After taking BOLT to a digital platform two years in a row due to COVID, she and the students have been through it all. She adds, “I trust the students, and we pivot if we have to.”
What makes this attitude even more impressive is that leadership is a class that students are only allowed to take once, which means BOLT is put on by a fresh batch of students each year. At last year’s event, a group had to drop out at the last minute, and it was a leadership student who came up with a solution to substitute a lip synch battle between staff and students. It ended up being a huge success, although students have been looking for redemption after last year’s staff victory.
The Big Night
After six months of plans, preparations, and immense work by both the leadership class and performers, BOLT 2024 proved to, literally, be a smashing success. Throughout the school day and into the evening, audiences made up of students, staff and community members sat rapt as they supported performers in their ultimate display of passions, talents and vulnerability. Leadership students emceed the event and introduced the acts who gave speeches about life lessons and personal struggles. Soloists and ensembles danced, sang and performed all types of musical numbers, and there was even an accordion soloist that brought the house down. Teachers got on stage to perform their gifts of music and Polynesian dancing; one teacher told his story about a traumatic injury and the role of perseverance in his life.
And while the students gave it their all, they were bested once again by staff in the lip synch battle. “The staff decimated the students,” says Wales, who suspects the lip sync battle might become an annual tradition.
For the finale of the evening show, a student band performed a medley of covers from The Who, complete with fog and spark machines. The fire alarms went off twice, but the audience didn’t budge. At the end of the medley, the lead guitarist smashed his guitar, and the crowd went nuts. “Goosebumps!” says Wales as she recounts some of her favorite parts of the night. But most importantly, Mrs. Wales and the students recognize that their hard work paid off. “There is nothing as magical as seeing people pouring their souls out on stage and looking around and noticing kids holding up their phone flashlights, dead silent, rapt, or giving thunderous applause and we realize it worked. It connected us.”
It is no wonder that Mrs. Wales was awarded the Southwest Washington Advisor of the Year for her commitment to community building and empowering student voices. She and her students have created something truly special, and the beauty of BOLT is that its reach goes far beyond one day. The evidence is in the students, past and present, who wanted to share what BOLT has meant to them:
“BOLT was an experience that I was unprepared for at the start. Working closely with my team allowed me to dive into the project and build confidence in myself that I didn’t know I had. By the end of the project, I pushed myself farther and decided to emcee one of the performances with my sister. This opportunity has led me down a path of success. BOLT gave me a family I can count on and a community that I know will support me.” – Jennifer Fisk
“BOLT meant so much to me and it was the most fun, but I also learned so much from it. I learned the power of vulnerability, the power of community, and the power of voice which has impacted my life more than I ever thought it would. I will never forget this experience, the good and hard parts.” – Emilee F.
“For me BOLT has meant so much. Throughout my time working on BOLT, I’ve been able to grow and do so much more than I ever thought myself capable of. Putting in the effort and working as a team with people that I hardly knew at the beginning of the year, I realized that this project brought together the class as a family. Doing something as big and impactful during my senior year has made my high school journey complete, by allowing me to create the impact that I did with my work in BOLT.” – Kairo Montes-Escamilla
“I worked alongside many individuals that I didn’t know prior to BOLT. This gave me the privilege to experience other mindsets. I have felt I’ve become a part of Skyview by being a part of BOLT.” – Josie D.
After nearly a decade of performances, Wales still never ceases to be amazed at how far BOLT has come and how much of a difference it’s made. “The students in leadership start out as 20 or 30 people who may have preconceived notions about each other and by the end, they really do become a family, and performers are an honorary part of that family,” she says. Her goal of creating an event that would unite people proved to be more rewarding than she thought possible: “It worked. Not only did it work, but it’s impacting people.”
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