By Kaylee Scarbrough

“I feel great!” Ted Weise shouted at the class of 2025 during their first high school assembly. Wiese’s catch phrase was one they will remember for years to come.  He has worked as a speaker for the positivity of students for 23 years and traveled to over 1,000 schools and has spoken in 43 states. 

He loves encouraging students and helping them better themselves in the way they think and act daily. “I feel great!!!” is Wiese’s only answer to the question “How are you today?” and he strives to get students to answer in the same way. His favorite part about encouraging students is the energy that they give him during his talks. His only hope is “…that at least one person comes to his program and gets a better outlook on life in the long run…”

Wiese realized while he was working with a nonprofit organization that he wanted to speak to students. He had always enjoyed public speaking and decided that he wanted to make a difference with kids across the country.

Mr. Pearce said that Mr. Gummert hired Wiese around 16 years ago to speak to the students. Since then, he’s brought him back every year because he “does a great job talking to the students about the importance of getting off to a good start in high school, how a positive attitude is important, and does team-building skills that brings their class closer as a whole.” Mr. Pearce also said that “It allows the freshman class to meet some friendly mentors…” and that “The day always gets rave reviews from the freshman class.” 

Sophie Scarbrough “had so much fun during the music game. We had to guess the song that was playing over the speaker.” The mentors’ each took a group of around seven freshmen and played team building games with them. This part of the program was especially important for them to build relationships with their mentors.

Riley Ross said, “My favorite part of the program was the gummy worm part. I was scared at first because he said that it was slimy, but then he was talking about how the “newt” tasted good so I just decided who cares and ate it anyway.”

Another student was very grossed out by the “Honduran Newt” portion of the program where Wiese blindfolded Jadelyn Burgess, Riley Ross, and Desirae Greenwood and convinced them to eat a “Honduran Newt,” which was actually just a gummy worm that had been soaked in water for a while. 

The mentors definitely enjoyed the program, maybe a little too much, this year as well. Allie Krutsinger, a mentor, won the number game, along with Reygan Lewis, a freshman. 

Wiese definitely knew how to keep the audience engaged and did an amazing job on teaching everyone how to “feel great.”