MHS and MJH Students recently attended the 2025 Digital Citizenship Symposium at ESU 10 in Kearney. The annual event is sponsored by Nebraska ESUs as part of the Nebraska Digital Citizenship Initiative. The day was filled with learning, collaborating, and creating a digital citizenship action plan to bring back to the schools where the students attend.
The guest speaker this year was Kristen Mattson. Through her work with Digital Citizenship as a teacher, school librarian, presenter, author, and doctoral student, Kristen has developed a framework around 4 pillars: Digital Safety, Media and Information Literacy, Digital Well-being, and Social Responsibility. She is the author of Ethics in a Digital World, co-leads Edvolve and maintains a website named Teach DigCit.
Applications to be part of the team were made available to the entire junior high and senior high student body in September. Members chosen for the "Squad" include Luis Almanza, Zayah Schaffert, Aicha Zalud, Charlie Kircher, Brooklynn Felzien and Embree Sonnenberg (left to right in photo). The group, sponsored by Mr. Richard Smock and Mrs. Tina Williams, did an outstanding job interacting with the content presented by the ESU team and Mrs. Mattson. Students mapped out their first campaign, beginning with the creation of posters that will be posted throughout the junior high and high school buildings during Digital Citizenship Week (Oct. 20-24). They determined it is important that they Educate their peers on AI companionship, Promote positive peer interactions at school and Encourage students to get involved in clubs and activities offered at school.
9th grader, Embree Sonnenberg, would like to see other students get involved stating that the Digital Citizenship Squad is an opportunity to "advertise your thoughts." Embree said she had fun attending the Symposium and liked it because she was able "to learn about new things that you probably didn't really have any idea about."
Congratulations to these students on their selection and participation in the Nebraska Digital Citizenship Symposium. The day offered students an opportunity to take what they learned and turn it into action. Their commitment to promoting positive digital behavior is encouraging! We look forward to seeing how their leadership helps shape a safer, kinder, and more connected community in school and in the digital world.