PFLUGERVILLE, Texas — According to Hendrickson High School, it all started with "I say yes!"
In 2020, that was senior Ronnie Brown's catchphrase. It later became a movement.
This past March, the school celebrated its recognition as a Special Olympics Unified Champions National Baner School with a banner-hanging ceremony. That same week, a film crew accompanied students and staff members, capturing campus culture for its Unified Champions program and a documentary series called "Unified Beginnings."
On Tuesday, Hendrickson's episode was released on GenerationUnified.org. The four-part series tells the story of four different Unified Champions schools. It is meant to help other schools learn how to create their own programs and build a culture of inclusion on campus.
Now, back to Brown.
The six-minute episode tells the story of how the program got started at Hendrickson all because of Brown's catchphrase.
"I say yes!" became a movement on campus that welcomed and included students of all abilities. It became a motto of their program, guiding students to take ownership and to find ways to include students with disabilities in all areas of the school.
Hendrickson later became recognized as one of the top five schools in the nation for inclusion by the Special Olympics and ESPN as a 2019 National Banner School last fall. That led to the March banner ceremony in the Hendrickson gym, where a banner now forever hangs reminding all those who enter how the students helped shape the culture there.
The full episode can be watched here.
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