BIONIC Club helps Kathryn Senor Elementary through challenging times

“As student leaders we will be respectful, show perseverance, be upstanders, have fun, be supportive, friendly and kind.”

What you just read is the vision statement for BIONIC, a club at Kathryn Senor Elementary, which name stands for believe it or not I care. Fourteen years after the first BIONIC club launched in Lakewood, Colorado, it is in its second year at Kathryn Senor Elementary under the direction of counselor Kelly Lord.

“At KSE, I am striving daily to have kind leaders,” says Lord. “We started the year off by defining leadership and what the traits of a good leader are. Then we focused on what leadership values we wanted to work on this year.”

The organization is designed to help the school community by setting various goals including bullying prevention, making new students feel welcome and reaching out to those who need support. Holding meetings every other Wednesday, BIONIC is made up of a compassionate group of fifth grade students who have a knack for helping others. 

For fifth grader Urban Gordon, the social aspects of the club are just as rewarding as the service part. “I joined BIONIC because I like helping out other people,” says Urban Gordon. “It's a really good feeling. And it feels good having other friends by your side.” He says his favorite part is getting to know other people better in the club and in school.

“I wanted to join BIONIC because I just kind of feel bad for the new students who don't know anybody, feel like they're left out or like they don't belong,” says Sofia Garcia. Part of the club’s objective is to welcome new students and help integrate them into the school. The BIONIC Team is assigned to a new student for the first few days and hosts a breakfast or lunch for them to mingle and get to know each other.

Sofia Garcia, fifth grader, says her favorite part is knowing that she’s made a difference by helping another student out. “I really just like having these meetings and getting to talk about these things with other members,” says Garcia. Fellow fifth grader Logan Chartier says he joined BIONIC because he wanted to help with fundraising efforts.

In October, the BIONIC Team celebrated National Bullying Prevention Month by putting on a “You’ve Been Booed” activity where classrooms gifted others with pencils and other school supplies.

As leader of the BIONIC Team, fifth grader Lennox Rickert will prepare the club for what is arguably their biggest project of the year: a lip-syncing competition. “We have a whole contest for the school where students can pick a song to lip-sync to and compete against each other,” says Rickert. “It’s definitely the biggest thing we do all year.” Fifth grader Ben Thompson, chair of the BIONIC Team, says that club members organize and run the event by compiling song choices and managing microphones.

According to Lord, the BIONIC club is also doing some fundraising to pay for t-shirts as well as a comforting stuffed animal hawk for every classroom. “We also want to welcome new students, and create a fun friendly environment through spirit weeks, school wide events like the lip sync contest,” says Lord.

“BIONIC is a great program that encourages students to look outside themselves to show that they care,” says Principal Jana Price. “By instilling these principles in our students, we are hopefully setting them up to consider others' needs and begin to meet them. I'm excited that we have this program at KSE!”