Recently, AHS has made headlines at Washingtons Top News (WTOP)! 7 years after the special olympics program started under Jae Lee, it was been recognized as a Special Olympics National Unified Champiion School. This award honors schools that meet 10 “standards of excellence” set by a national panel of leaders from the Special Olympics Comitte globally.

At Annandale, the special olympics program has a huge fan base and support, including by team leadership. Senior Sage Nagle, who has been apart of the program for all four of her high school years, has seen personal growth from the athletes and program as a whole. “[The athletes] self confidence grows a lot throughout their time in the program, and they develop skills both within the post and socially.” said Nagle. “This gives them a really strong sense of accomplishment”

When asked about what AHS will do to continue this movement, Principal Shawn DeRose said, “I think Annandale is an amazing, inclusive school, And there’s always room for improvement.” AHS being recognized for this strong initiative in the special olympics program is a huge step forward in the room for improvement at AHS.

As the special olympics program at AHS has grown overtime from 10 athletes to over 20 this year, this recognition is only going to help the program grow. “It feeols really good to be names a unified school” added Nalge. “We’ve worked really hard throughout the past four years to promote inclusion and seeing it pay off is really nice.”

If you want to continue to support the Atoms Special Olympics program, you can attend any of their events, and follow them on instagram @atoms_specialolympics