The school day at Joppa-Maple Grove begins with a familiar rhythm: the Pledge of Allegiance, morning announcements, and then Principal Stephanie Wood's voice over the intercom, repeating the same phrase every single day: “Today I will show grit when I am learning, work towards a years worth of growth and above all show grace in everything I do.”

Those three words are more than a motto. They're a compass—a shared language spoken from kindergarten to high school hallways. For history teacher Alyssa Schloss and guidance counselor Penny Bellamey, both of whom served on the committee that developed the district's "Portrait of a Graduate," the power is in their daily repetition.

"It's kind of like that mantra," Alyssa says. "You go back to those things in your head, things that your teachers tell you, things that your parents tell you. That's what we're trying to do for these kids because they don't always have that strong home background. But they know people are in their corner here."

The Portrait of a Graduate emerged last year when Superintendent Dr. Greg Goins brought together a committee of educators to answer a fundamental question: What do we want our graduates to look like when they walk out the door?

"We threw out a lot of buzzwords," Alyssa recalls. "We need them to be respectful. We want them to be kind, coachable, well-rounded, diverse citizens of the world. From that experience, we returned to the three words we were already using as a focus for the day during morning announcements: grit, growth, and grace.”

"Grit means being able to overcome," Alyssa explains. "We don't live in an area of the world where these kids get a lot of advantages. With the poverty that they fight every day, one of the biggest things you have to do is learn to overcome and not let any adversity set you back."

It's more than resilience. "Grit is resilience on steroids," she says. "It's not just rolling with the punches—it's standing up to the punches and fighting back."

Growth happens in the showing. "We're fortunate to be in a district where we are small enough to have those one-on-one connections. I get kids for three to four years in high school. I get to see them year after year, and I get to build them up. I can say, look where you've come from, look where you're headed. You get to show them the evidence of the growth."

Penny sees that growth in her dual role as math teacher and guidance counselor. "I see them wanting to do better for themselves," she says. "They're trying to figure out what is best for their future."

She meets individually with juniors and seniors to talk about their plans: military, workforce, trade school, university. "I ask, what do you want to do? Where do you want to go?" She also brings in alumni and community members to talk about their roles. "It's cool to see how these alumni can say, this is what Joppa did for me."

Alyssa knows about unconventional paths. Before becoming a history teacher, she earned her bachelor's degree in occupational safety and health and worked as a safety professional. "When I see a kid who kind of exhibits the same habits, I can say, hey, Murray State has this program that I never even heard of before I got there. There's more to business than business or accounting."

And then there's grace. "Grace means being able to accept people the way that they are and figure out ways to work with them and build community," Alyssa explains. "For being the smallest school, we have so much diversity. It's super cool to witness that."

When I suggest that the district's diversity reminds me of OSB—oriented strand board—a building material made of wood fragments pressed together under immense pressure to form something stronger and more dimensionally stable than traditional plywood, Alyssa nods. The different pieces, the different directions, the different colors all compressed into a single sheet that derives its strength from that very diversity. "I would say yeah," she agrees.

But grace isn't just about accepting others—it's about accepting yourself. "You're gonna mess up," Alyssa says. "But you have to have the grace to accept that you're wrong. And you fight back with that grit and figure out what the right thing is. And you ultimately grow."

The visual symbol of this philosophy—a triangle with a graduation cap perched on its tip—hangs in the hallway. "We chose the triangle because it's the strongest shape," Alyssa says. "Each side supports the others."

This is the first year the Portrait of a Graduate has been fully implemented, and already the language has spread. "Our elementary teachers are building that foundation early," Penny says. "We see kids using that language in second and third grade—saying, 'I showed grit today!'"

Alyssa nods. "By having the posters, by saying the mantras, we're instilling those ideas into their head to where it becomes automatic. It becomes part of who they are, part of what makes them a person from this community."

When those graduates step onto the stage, they'll carry proof that grit, growth, and grace aren't just words—they're the way forward.