Students learn power of small connections at Cascade High School

LEAVENWORTH — Students at Cascade High School didn’t stay seated for long. Within minutes of the bell, they were on their feet, crossing the gym floor, pairing off with classmates and answering questions that started simple and quickly turned more personal.

What’s your favorite color?
What makes you smile?
Who is someone you admire?

The movement across the gym, from one side to the other and from one partner to the next, was intentional.

“I don't like hearing myself talk that long,” said Luke Wall, executive director of Only 7 Seconds. “So what we're going to do today is a little bit different.”

Instead of a traditional assembly, Wall led students through a series of short, interactive exercises designed to spark small moments of connection, the kind his organization believes can change the course of someone’s day, or even their life.

Students helping facilitate the assembly included Gavin Hedeck, Adi Castaneda, Cosimo Terranova, Josue Quintanilla and Max Spiegel, who assisted with coordinating and helped guide their peers.

Only 7 Seconds, a nonprofit focused on addressing loneliness among youth, takes its name from a simple idea: it takes just a few seconds to reach out to someone.

Wall opened with a story about his younger brother, who spent five weeks recovering from an injury during high school without hearing from teammates or friends.

“For five weeks, my brother sat in bed, and felt like no one cared about him,” Wall told students. “He felt alone, he felt lonely.” And Wall’s mother noticed it too, wondering how long it could possibly take for one of his friends to reach out. She timed it herself, and that’s where the name Only 7 Seconds comes from.

That experience, he said, helped shape the organization’s focus on small, intentional acts, a message, a check-in, a simple invitation.

Throughout the assembly, students were asked to move, talk and reflect, often with people they didn’t know well. In one activity, they spread across the gym based on personality traits or preferences, then turned to someone nearby to answer prompts about their lives. In another, they worked in small groups to identify one action they could take to build connection, one person they could reach out to and one place they could make more welcoming.

The exercises were designed to show that connection doesn’t come from one big gesture, but from many small ones.

“Every single one of you has the power to do that,” Wall said.

At one point during the activities, while students were writing responses and talking in small groups, Wall stepped away from the center of the gym and walked up into the bleachers to check on a student who had remained seated and was not participating. He spoke briefly with the student before returning to the floor, a quiet moment that reflected the message he had been emphasizing throughout the assembly.

Wall also pointed to research showing the importance of relationships, telling students that strong social connections are one of the most significant predictors of long-term health.

“What is the number one predictive factor of living the longest, best life?” he asked. “It's your social.”

After the assembly, Wall said he hopes students leave with a simple takeaway.

“I hope they feel seen,” he said. “I hope they feel connected to someone else.”

He said loneliness among young people is often misunderstood, particularly in an era shaped by social media.

“The loneliest demographic in the U.S. are teenagers,” Wall said. “We think they're more connected because they have technology and social media and all that stuff. They're lonelier than any other demographic.”

And while the causes can be complex, he said the starting point for change often isn’t.

“Have meaningful, small conversations, be a safe space, non-judgmental, caring, listen,” Wall said. “Those are very simple things that every adult and kid all have the capacity to do.”

He shared a recent example from another school visit in the region, where two students approached him after an assembly.

“Two kids afterwards came up to me and each of them had attempted to take their own life in the last month,” Wall said.

In one case, he said, a student was still alive because of a message from a friend.

“The only reason they were there that day is because one of their friends had sent them a message [that ended with] ‘because you matter,’” he said, referring to the slogan the organization prints on its yard signs and brochures. “And the only reason that kid is gonna be graduating this year is because of that.”

Moments like that, he said, reinforce the core message behind the organization’s work.

“It’s not rocket science,” Wall said. “It’s nothing crazy, it’s nothing that's new, but it's just sometimes we forget to slow down, we forget to check in.”

For students at Cascade High School, the takeaway was immediate and personal.

“Please, please, please take seven seconds to reach out to someone you care about today,” Wall told the room.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media