A student sits alone, no one knows that he hasn’t talked to anyone all day. No one has noticed that he sits in the same place every day and never with anyone his age. But, someone has noticed, and she expects to make a change.

We Dine Together is a program by National Honor Society (NHS) sponsor, Kelly Flickinger, along with NHS students to bring a change to James Bowie High school about the students who sit alone.

“We want to make sure that no one makes it through their entire day without talking or having an authentic conversation with somebody else,” Flickinger said. “So we want people to come up and say, ‘Hey, I’m so-and-so, I want to have a meal with you. I want to sit down and talk with you.’ Just those real basic things here, it’s authentic and genuine and this idea that we are going to connect as a community and we are going to make sure that no matter what everybody is connected someway and somehow.”

NHS has a mission to change the culture of Bowie, not just make a small adjustment during lunch.

“We Dine Together is important because it is setting a standard for what a culture should look like,” senior NHS officer Ian Wood said. “It is a torch for the school to rally behind and push towards that quintessential culture.”

Flickinger hopes that the program will extend past NHS to everyone who attends the school.

“We want everybody to be part of this group. So I’ve already talked to multiple coaches, multiple groups where they’re like, ‘Wait, we want our athletes to do this. We want our dancers to do this,’” Flickinger said. “And I have NHS students, ‘Hey, is it okay they’re not in NHS?’ And I’m like, ‘Yes! That’s the whole point!’”

We Dine Together promotes a kind atmosphere at Bowie and forming bonds among students.

“With We Dine Together, we hope to be a friendly face to everyone, especially to those who need friendship the most. This is what we strive to accomplish,” Wood said. “We work hard to accomplish our goals because being kind, caring, and inclusive are the major tenets of what the culture at Bowie needs to be.”

We Dine Together, under the influence of Flickinger and the National Honor Society has the goal to bring Bowie to a new culture that the school can be proud of.

“This is important because I am a big believer that we are, we are a body of people that need to be together. We’re all humans, we are all connected to each other and we are empowered through connection,” Flickinger said. “It’s important for me and for our group and for our school to make sure that everybody feels like a part of something bigger than just themselves.”