Exeter Teens Start Kindness Movement at High School

Two juniors at Exeter Union High School launched a student-led initiative called "Be that One" to promote inclusion and responsibility among their peers.

Published on Feb. 25, 2026

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Two juniors at Exeter Union High School, Mary Awad and Mykael Luna, have started a student-led movement called "Be that One" to encourage kindness, inclusion, and responsibility among their fellow students. The initiative involves handing out stickers, hosting rallies, and visiting other schools with the goal of making positive choices contagious. Teachers say the student-driven nature of the movement is key to its success in shaping the school's culture.

Why it matters

High school is a formative time when habits and social trends start to take shape, so student-led efforts to promote kindness and responsibility can have a lasting impact on the school community and beyond. The "Be that One" movement aims to ensure all students feel welcomed and included, which can improve overall student well-being and engagement.

The details

Juniors Mary Awad and Mykael Luna started the "Be that One" movement at Exeter Union High School to address the issue of some students feeling overlooked or left out. The idea is simple: encourage their peers to be the one who chooses kindness, includes others, and makes responsible choices, even when no one is watching. The group hands out stickers, hosts rallies, and visits other schools to spread their message.

  • The "Be that One" movement started over the summer before the current school year.

The players

Mary Awad

A junior at Exeter Union High School who co-founded the "Be that One" movement to promote kindness and inclusion among her peers.

Mykael Luna

A junior at Exeter Union High School who co-founded the "Be that One" movement after seeing fellow classmates struggle to fit in, something he remembers experiencing as a freshman.

Margie Reed

A teacher at Exeter Union High School who says the student-driven nature of the "Be that One" movement is key to its success in shaping the school's culture.

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What they’re saying

“We realized that some students here at UHS and overall across the extra unified school district may feel overlooked or left out, and we wanted to overcome that conflict by making an initiative where we make students feel home here at campus and feel like they are a part of something.”

— Mary Awad, Co-founder of "Be that One" movement (yourcentralvalley.com)

“My freshman year was kind of tough. I wanna make. Like freshmen, kids like that. Make sure they're not, they don't feel that same way I did.”

— Mykael Luna, Co-founder of "Be that One" movement (yourcentralvalley.com)

“If you want to make a difference, it has to come from you. And so they got together, they got a group of kids, and they just started working over the summer. It just took off like wildfire.”

— Margie Reed, Teacher at Exeter Union High School (yourcentralvalley.com)

What’s next

The "Be that One" movement plans to continue hosting rallies, handing out stickers, and visiting other schools to spread their message of kindness and inclusion.

The takeaway

The student-driven "Be that One" movement at Exeter Union High School demonstrates how young people can take the lead in shaping their school's culture and promoting positive values like kindness and responsibility, which can have a lasting impact on their peers and the broader community.