'What Makes You Smile?' Montour English Department Looks On The Bright Side

MCKEES ROCKS (KDKA) -- The English Department at Montour High School in McKees Rocks has been working for a little more than a week to get the students in the school to focus on one simple question.

"What makes you smile?"

"It's a really interesting project because it can sort of unify the school community by identifying a positive attitude amongst all the kids," says senior Pete Rauch. "I think (that) is something that a lot of schools need to provide."

Because every student in the school must take English, that department is in charge of heading up the effort.

Each student was given a blank white sheet of paper and asked to write, show or display, with one or two words, something that makes them smile.

It is a fall project they do each year for the Montour student body, but teacher Rhonda Marasco says things really evolved this year.

"Last year, we worked on #BeTheKindKid week, and we did a week worth of activities about that," she said. "The year before that we did My Intent. So this year we did World Smile Day because it is not as well known, and we wanted to represent that at Montour."

Fellow teacher Gina Ligouri says this project is something the students look forward to doing.

"It gives them an opportunity to reflect and take a step back from the academics and kind of look at what makes them happy," she added. "What makes them smile? Why are they here?"

All of the reasons are on display in the English hall at Montour High School.

Some of them were repeated often: family, pets, music, or sports, but every student in the building, all 930, can find their reason on the wall.

For some kids the question was easy. Others like junior Reece Macek had to think for a while.

"A lot of things do make me happy, but I thought of the one thing that makes me the happiest which is my best friend so I put that as what makes me happy," Macek said.

Junior Josh Narehood combined a lot of things that he is happy about in one place: Pittsburgh.

"My dad lives in Nashville, so I know different cities," Narehood explained. "Pittsburgh just beats all of them, you know? It encompasses everything else that makes me smile, you know? My family, my friends, my school. It's all part of Pittsburgh."

Every student was given an Eat 'N Park Smiley cookie during English today and during lunch, the Acts of Random Kindness Club passed out free lollipops with a sticker attached to the stick.

Kids then could write something on the sticker and give the candy to the friend or to someone else who makes them happy.

"One of my main goals is to teach these kids how to be good people and how to be able to leave here and function in the community on all different levels, not just academically but within the community as well," says Ligouri. "So I think being kind and everything else we are doing today kind of pulls into one well-rounded student."

And that should make all of us smile.