WaveCrest Heroes: Letha McWey

February 28th, 2019

We’ve been sharing stories from our staff and the ways that they interact with students. This month we spoke with Letha McWey, the cafeteria lead at Vista High School. Letha has a smile and a kind word for every student she interacts with, and for as much as we wanted to hear about her, Letha redirected her stories to rave about the culture of student kindness that she’s encountered during her time at Vista High School.

“I’ve found that at Vista High, the students are really respectful and down to earth and kind,” says Letha. “They don’t know I’m the manager, but here’s not a kid I serve that isn’t kind. They always say, ‘thank you’, they always say, ‘please’, they’re just really polite.

As a veteran school nutrition professional, Letha has seen school cultures at a number of places, and Vista High stands out.

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As for what she thinks contributes to that culture of kindness, Letha points to something that students also cite as one of the school’s strengths: its diversity. Letha explains, “The population here is very diverse and really broad, it’s a very diverse campus. I think the staff is really interacts in a positive way with the students and so I think that’s why they engage back with us in a positive way. The students feel respected.”

One example of the thoughtfulness that Letha embodies is how she pays attention to students’ behaviors, remembers them and then responds. “There’s this one girl, and she buys 2 Benefit bars every day, and she comes to my window, so I put them aside for her and make sure I serve her. And she’s so appreciative. The little things that we can do to support the kids, I think they sense it and are respectful.”