Challenge

Character

Union Academy is a National School of Character which means we have demonstrated that character development has had a positive impact on academics, student behavior, and school climate. Character development is a journey we are on with our students through modeling, intentional conversations, and connection. It is important to integrate our eight character traits: Compassion, Adaptability, Respect, Responsibility, Optimism, Trustworthiness, Perseverance, and Initiative into everything we do as a school.

In our middle school we focus on character development through our advisory classes. Our character is informed through well-being, belonging, and engagement (characterstrong.com). We celebrate good character through special programs, activities and assemblies.

In 8th grade, our character education focuses on developing thoughtful, healthy, and kind human beings. Our character is informed by our personal values and choices (characterstrong.com). We utilize the Character Strong curriculum as well as individualized character lessons through our everyday classes and BEST time.

For our community service in 8th grade, we support Bright Blessings. From the Bright Blessings webpage: Bright Blessings remains a volunteer-led organization that impacted more than 35,851 homeless and impoverished children in 2020. Through our core programs; Bless-A-Birthday, Bless-A-Baby, Gift of Literacy and Gift of Care, we surpassed a huge milestone in October of 2020 by celebrating 100,000 children served since our organization’s humble beginning. Bright Blessings now has partnerships with over 30 local agencies and school districts and is serving children in 6 counties including Mecklenburg, Union, Cabarrus, Gaston, Iredell and York.

We have led supply drives and served onsite at the Bright Blessings facility in Matthews, NC. To learn more, click here for the Bright Blessings website.