Power & Class

Evren Gunduz ‘04 “ignites” Hopkinton school

September 6, 2007

With the start of school this week, parents, kids and teachers are gearing up for another dynamic school year.

But school is not just about academics, sports and clubs. There is an exciting program which helps students think outside the box that has popped up at the middle school called IGNITE.

Just the word makes the imagination soar, and with the energetic 8th grade environmental science teacher, Evren Gunduz, as the coordinator of the program that begun during the 05-06 school year, IGNITE is exploding with clear leadership, and helping students mentor others - at school and in the community.

At an age when most people write these kids off, Gunduz said 13 and 14-year-olds are powerful people and can accomplish anything in this world.

“I opened up an extra class on leadership to any of my science students that they could take with me every other week after school,” he said. “I met with the twenty kids and taught them lessons on positive leadership and developing a good attitude, working together, giving to their peers, families, and community, internal motivation, and living life to the fullest…We focused on enjoying life by helping others enjoy theirs, and how you get what you give. We also talked about how positive leaders make others feel good about themselves so they become positive leaders.”

The initial group grew to thirty kids during the last school year, said Gunduz.

“This year the team is seventy-seven large and there is a lot going on already,” he said. “We participate in one fundraiser per year (Relay for Life this year) and we always do something big for others - making comedy videos for the Marines in Iraq (is one project).”

He continued, “Along with that, this year’s team will also be mentors to the incoming 6th graders.”

Although the IGNITE program is run for eighth graders, Gunduz hopes the program will spill over into the high school so students can continue with the positive energy that they have already generated.

The new sixth grade mentoring program had its premiere this past August.

“The team ran a sixth grade orientation in August to welcome in the new class into Hopkinton Middle School, and make them feel comfortable, get them excited, and provide them with eighth grade friends and mentors that would be there to help all year,” said Gunduz.

The IGNITE program, started by the twenty five-year-old Gunduz, was fashioned after several programs that he had been involved in while an undergraduate at UMass Amherst and a member of the award-winning marching band.

“One program (at the college) is the field staff in the UMass Minuteman Marching Band who are student leaders and help the nationally acclaimed band function on and off the field,” said Gunduz. “Another is the SWAG team, which is a leadership team that helps run the Bands of America Summer Music Symposium of more than 3,000 students on the Illinois State campus.”

Adding, “The final group that I tried to model the IGNITE Team after is the IMPACT Team that is the leadership team that helps run the George N. Parks Drum Major Academy. George Parks is also the Director of the UMass Minuteman Marching Band and has been my inspiration behind the IGNITE Team.”

Not only has the program inspired students, but one of the parents, Mary Ann Hennigan, whose 8th grade son Tommy was involved in the program last year, has high praise for the direct and clear impact it can have on kids at this very vulnerable age.

Her now fourteen-year-old son, is entering his freshman year of high school and he had became involved in the program after he was invited to write an essay at the beginning of the 8th grade school year. The essay was about what they thought were the qualities of a good leader, and why they would be a good leader, said Hennigan.

“It was not a contest, but more of an application and open to any student who was interested,” she said. “My son wrote an essay and was one of the forty kids’ selected that year.”

Adding, “I believe he became involved as he has a natural tendency to be a person who cares about others, demonstrating good sportsmanship, supporting his peers, and valuing integrity and fairness in the world.”

“We as people see in ourselves the qualities that other’s see in us… Mr. Gunduz saw the qualities and the potential and the light in, not only my son, but the other kids as well,” said Hennigan. “This experience gave my son self-confidence, but also stressed the importance that other’s had qualities and positive attributes to be honored as well.”

She continued, “He showed these kids the effects that attitudes have on what and how we experience our lives. He impressed to them that we are not victims in the world, but rather volunteers and that life is not happening to us, but that we are happening to life…In other words, we really should not blame anyone for our circumstances or situations. It really teaches accountability and personal responsibility.”