Over the next two months, seventh graders across Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will participate in the Amazing Shake — a global, high-impact leadership competition created by the Ron Clark Academy that challenges students to perform under pressure. 

The Amazing Shake builds career-ready soft skills, strengthens student confidence and aligns academics with real-world expectations.

“The competition allows students to use different parts of their brains, think outside of the box and use their critical-thinking skills,” said Eric Summerour, director of special projects for Student Programs, Planning and Placement. 

Summerour said the district began with a slow rollout in the fall, working with middle school Career and Technical Education (CTE) career development coordinators to introduce the Amazing Shake in their schools and English Language Arts teachers and provide them with toolkits.

Suzie Melton, CTE career development coordinator at Jay M. Robinson Middle School, said she worked closely with her fellow elective and ELA teachers to get the program running. Once they had the material, Melton said they “took off with it” as they started Round 1, which challenges students to give an elevator pitch on the best advice they ever received.

“They were amazed at the kids taking it so seriously and wanting to put their best foot forward,” said Melton. “There were a couple of teachers who didn’t get to see the kids in that light and said it was amazing to hear how eloquent they were in their speech and they didn’t know the child had it in them. So I think that’s really what the program does — it pulls some of those qualities from the students.”

Summerour said qualities like articulation, eye contact, body posture and charisma  prepare students for the future, especially seventh graders, as they’re exploring their interests and thinking about what they want to do.

The Amazing Shake aligns with Goal 4 of the 2024-29 Strategic Plan — increasing the percentage of students graduating from CMS enrolled, enlisted or employed. The skills built throughout the competition are meant to challenge students to be uncomfortable and think quickly, but also to build confidence as they step out of their comfort zones to try something new.

“Going back to the CMS blueprint about what we want to do with all things workforce development, that starts as early as middle school,” said Summerour. “We learn through various statistics that workforce development truly can start in the seventh grade — developing those professional skills, those soft skills. Seventh graders are prepared. They’re ready. They’re engaged, and I think we could not have found a better crop of students to start this project with here in the district.”

Later this month, the top 10 students from each middle school will advance to the semifinals round and compete against other students in their performance area. The top two students from each middle school will then advance to Round 4 of the Amazing Shake, or the district finals, in February. The top six finalists will go on to compete in the Global Finals at the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta.

“The Amazing Shake is a great supplement overall in CMS to help our students be career ready,” said Summerour. “The Amazing Shake, at its core, is to help prepare students for those professional-ready skills to help them with real-world scenarios and challenges. So no matter how far a student gets in this competition, the memories, the skills, the knowledge, the relationships that they might form with different people, the mentorships that they get are invaluable. And that’s what we want students to take from this competition.”